Adam Kubalski lay immobile on the ice in Eugene, Ore., as his
teammates and fans wondered what had just happened. Since he began
playing organized hockey at the age of 5, Kubalski had never heard
of a goalie getting hit by an oncoming scorer during a penalty
shot. Now he was that goalie. And he was in a world of pain.
Kubalski, UCLA’s junior goaltender, and USC freshman
defenseman Matt Lewis collided in the opening round of penalty
shots to determine the outcome of an overtime game between the
crosstown rivals Feb. 11. Because of his injury, Kubalski ““
widely considered the best goalie in the league ““ had to be
taken out, and USC went on to win the shootout against UCLA’s
backup goalie. After the match, Kubalski couldn’t help but
suspect that Lewis might have crashed into him intentionally. He
wasn’t the only one. The incident left coaches, players, fans
and even an official questioning the intentions of Lewis and his
team. Lewis has encountered much criticism for his aggressive play
but attributes the crash to poor skating. “I didn’t do
it on purpose,” Lewis said. “I tried to cut left with
my right foot and … it kind of slipped out; then I just kind of
fell on top of him.” USC coach Mark Wilbur said the collision
was partly caused by poor skating on Lewis’ behalf, but the
positioning during that play was also a factor. “The whole
incident was sad and tragic,” said Wilbur. “The reality
is (that Lewis) completely mishandled the puck and the kid’s
a freshman.” But not everyone who witnessed the crash saw it
as completely accidental. “At this level of hockey, you
shouldn’t run into the goalie,” said Oregon coach Scott
McCallum. “In a shootout, that just shouldn’t
happen.” The Bruin goalie came back to Los Angeles two weeks
ago on crutches, in the wake of defeat and injury. The Trojan
hockey team returned to Los Angeles after winning the Pac-8
Championship, surrounded by controversy. UCLA plays USC again
Friday night, in what has become a highly anticipated game.
Competition for the Crosstown Cup, a five-game series between the
two rivals, is still underway, and UCLA needs one more win to
clinch the series. It is doubtful that Kubalski will play.
The incident UCLA (12-11) entered the Pac-8
Championship tournament Feb. 10, an underdog in its first-round
match against USC. The Bruins won two of the previous three games
against their crosstown rival, with the lone loss a forfeit due to
a player’s academic ineligibility. This time, the game led to
a sudden-death overtime period, which ended in a 4-4 tie. The teams
were then relegated to a five-game penalty shooting contest. At
first, it seemed like UCLA, with first-team Pac-8 goalie Kubalski,
had the definite advantage. Lewis was selected to shoot first for
USC. According to video footage obtained by the Daily Bruin from
Kubalski’s father, Zygmunt Kubalski, Lewis was only a few
feet away from the goal when he moved his stick from his left- to
right-hand side. Lewis then lowered his body to fit under the
goalpost, lifted his elbows up in front of his face, and collided
with Kubalski. Kubalski, his legs spread apart and his footing
unsure, had the puck firmly in his possession just before the
impact. As Lewis collided with Kubalski, the Bruin goalie’s
knee bent in an awkward position and was pinned to the ice as his
body was pushed backward. The goalie, the shooter and the puck all
slid to the back of the net in a heap. The aftermath for the Bruin
goalie was a sprained MCL, a bone contusion, a heavy edema in his
knee and a slightly torn quad. No penalty was given, and no point
scored. Kubalski stayed in the game, but when he tried to block the
shot of the next USC shooter, his knee gave way. He was carried off
the ice after the goal. UCLA was forced to replace Kubalski with
backup goalie David Spangle, who normally plays forward/guard and
had not played in the goal for four years. UCLA lost the shootout
4-3 and USC went on to beat Oregon, claiming the conference
championship. There is an unwritten rule in hockey that hockey
players are supposed to do everything in their power to avoid
hitting a goalie. “Goalies are usually off-limits;
you’re supposed to avoid hitting them at all costs,”
said Brad Whitworth, assistant captain and vice president of the
UCLA team.
The fallout Since Feb. 11, a handful of coaches
and players have voiced concern over whether Lewis maliciously
intended to injure the UCLA goalie. McCallum was watching the
UCLA-USC matchup while his team waited to play California in the
following game. McCallum did not go as far as saying the incident
was premeditated, but he did voice major concerns over
Lewis’s alleged effort to avoid Kubalski. “It sure
didn’t look like (Lewis) made an effort to avoid running into
Adam,” McCallum said. “I think he was trying to get
into Adam’s head and shake him up and maybe make him a little
dizzy.” McCallum thinks that sort of play by Lewis is
“horrible,” he added. Several Pac-8 coaches and players
have reiterated the opinion that Lewis made no discernible effort
to avoid Kubalski. “I think (Lewis) failed in his
responsibility to ensure the health of the other goalie,”
said Ben Greenberg, an off-ice official for the tournament and also
a former member of the Oregon hockey team. Cal assistant coach
Chris Dang was also bothered by the event. “It looked like he
fell forward towards the goalie, rather than just dropping to the
ice,” Dang said of Lewis. “It seemed like he went into
the goalie hard. Most players, when they run into the goalie, do
everything they can to slow down a bit.” UCLA coach Mike
Kelly had quite possibly the most vocal and angered response to the
incident, as he felt UCLA had a strong chance of winning with
Kubalski in the net. “(Lewis) didn’t try to
stop,” Kelly said. “He’s one of their better
players too, so he should be in more control of his skating.”
USC coach Wilbur blames the injury on Kubalski’s positioning.
“Kubalski was completely out of position inside the net; he
is too tight on the net,” Wilbur said. “Normally what
you try and teach goalies on a shootout is that they (should be)
more out towards the top of the crease so they can read and react
as the player approaches in on the net, and he was almost inside of
the net,” Wilbur said. But close examination of video taken
of the event reveals that Kubalski was actually in front of the
crease ““ the position in which Wilbur says he should be
““ when Lewis began to make his move. Kubalski himself
believes the hit was intentional, due to the force the USC player
put into his fall. “(Lewis) basically came down on my knee
with his stick between his hands and pushed my upper body
back,” Kubalski said. “I definitely felt some extra
force coming from his hands and he came down on my knee and upper
body.” UCLA’s trainer, David Cokely, who has spoken
with Kubalski’s doctors, attributes Kubalski’s injuries
to the blunt force trauma that occurred when Lewis’ stick
made contact with Kubalski’s knee. After the game, Wilbur
walked past Kubalski in the lobby of the skating rink. “He
saw me in the lobby, walking with my crutches, and didn’t say
a single word to me ““ no “˜Sorry,’ nothing,”
Kubalski said. “That’s when I gave him a piece of my
mind.” Wilbur and Kubalski said they then engaged in a
profanity-laced argument. “How can I approach him?”
said Wilbur, explaining why he didn’t apologize to Kubalski
after the game. “The kid wanted to kill me.” The drama
reached new heights when the league hosted its annual awards
banquet the following night. Wilbur, also the executive director of
the league at the time, performed the duty of giving awards out to
players. Members of the UCLA, Oregon and Cal teams booed him
throughout the ceremony. All four teams in the tournament were
staying in the Eugene Hilton, and USC and UCLA players got into a
yelling match later that night after they had been drinking, Lewis
and UCLA defenseman Niki Kollar confirmed. According to the log
kept by the private security guard of the hotel, he “broke up
a large fight between USC and UCLA players” in the hotel
lobby at 2 a.m.
Executive decision Marshall Stevenson,
president of the American Collegiate Hockey Association ““ the
Pac-8’s governing body ““ took issue with Wilbur getting
into an argument with an injured player. “Anybody in their
right mind is going to say that certainly the coach should take the
high road,” said Stevenson, who expects the ACHA Division II
commissioner to look into the incident. Meanwhile, Pac-8
Commissioner Roger Kulpa considers the incident to be accidental
and believes no further investigation will be necessary. “One
of the USC players fell into the goalie, causing an injury,”
Kulpa said. “That’s about it. … It did not appear to
look intentional.” Kulpa, who attended the awards banquet at
which Wilbur was booed, also said he was unaware of “any
subsequent drama.”