The IIHF has suspended Russian junior team captain Vladislav Kamenev for two games, the international governing body announced Thursday.
The suspension results from an incident in the gold medal game at the 2016 World Junior Championship. Finland had just gone up 3-2 with 3:09 left in the game (a game where Russia would score to push overtime and Finland would take gold on home ice). Kamenev was sent to the ref to dispute a non-call.
It resulted in Kamenev taking an unsportsmanlike conduct for not listening to the refs, who sent him away. Under IIHF rules, he wasn’t permitted to come to the refs at that point and dispute the call either. He needed to be called over by the refs.
After he was assessed the unsportsmanlike conduct, he continued arguing as he was sent to the box, broke his stick, then threw the broken stick, injuring an off-ice official. He then kicked the rest of his stick out onto the ice.
That tantrum resulted in a 20-minute game misconduct penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct under IIHF Rule 168.
A supplementary hearing has concluded, determining that the penalty was not enough discipline for Kamenev’s actions.
According to the IIHF ruling:
[Kamenev] was represented by the counsel of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia, who argued that it was appropriate and customary for a team captain to discuss the non-call with the referee and the only way to talk to him was to follow him, therefore the 10-minute penalty was not warranted and provoked the regrettable behaviour.
However, according to IIHF Rule 28 vi, the player, even being the captain of the team, was not allowed to come off the players’ bench and discuss with the referee about how he was conducting the game unless requested to do so by an on-ice official.
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The Deciding Panel for the IIHF has ruled that Kamenev’s defense wasn’t passing. The release from the IIHF states that “the IIHF Disciplinary Board is of the opinion that the game misconduct penalty is not adequate enough to sanction the agitated behaviour of the player as the aggressive behaviour he unmistakably expressed made his actions a more serious case that showed a flagrant disregard of the rules.”
The ruling states that Kamenev will serve his suspension “during the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.”
Kamenev, a Nashville Predators prospect, spent the season with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL.