The ECHL has indefinitely suspended Jacksonville Icemen defenseman Jacob Panetta, pending a hearing for what South Carolina Stingrays defenseman Jordan Subban said was a racist taunt on Saturday night.
“The South Carolina Stingrays are disgusted and appalled by last night’s incident involving Jordan Subban,” Stingrays team president Rob Concannon said in a statement. “Our organization stands in support of our friend and teammate, Jordan, as well as all other players who continue to deal with racism and discrimination. This behavior is unacceptable and has to stop.”
The Jacksonville Icemen said in a statement that the organization is cooperating with the ECHL’s review of the incident.
“As an organization, our fans, partners and sponsors know our core values and intend to make comments and decisions after completion of league review,” the team said.
The game was in overtime when South Carolina’s Andrew Cherniwchan collided with Jacksonville goalie Justin Kapelmaster, sparking a skirmish between the teams. According to Subban, he tried to engage Panetta in a fight. Panetta responded by allegedly taunting Subban, who is Black.
“As soon as I began to turn my back, he started making monkey gestures at me, so I punched him in the face multiple times and he turtled like the coward he is,” Subban tweeted.
More like @JPanetta12 was too much of a coward to fight me and as soon as I began to turn my back he started making monkey gestures at me so I punched him in the face multiple times and he turtled like the coward he is. There fixed it 👍🏾 https://t.co/JtPqpN9wwE
— Jordan Subban (@jordansubban) January 23, 2022
The two fought while surrounded by players from both teams. They received major penalties and misconduct penalties that sent them to their locker rooms. Subban’s teammate Nico Blachman left the Stingrays bench to punch Panetta and was also given a game misconduct.
Jacksonville won the game 1-0 on an overtime power-play goal. The Icemen are a minor league affiliate…
Source : espn
