Fowler Looking For A Fight?

If the Montreal Canadiens' goaltenders are struggling in the NHL, their prospects certainly aren't. Jakub Dobes and Connor Hughes are dominating in the AHL, and Jacob Fowler is also dominant for Boston College in the NCAA.

As previously reported, his stats are very impressive. In eight games in his sophomore season, he has a 7-1 record, a 1.26 goals-against average and a ,950 save percentage. However, it looks like he might have a bit of a temper.

In a game against the UConn Huskies last night, Tristan Fraser crashed the net to score Uconn's third goal and slid into Fowler, which the goaltender did not like. As the Huskies were celebrating the goal and Fraser and Fowler were on the ice, the goalie sent a blocker punch to goal scorer's face.

As a result, the Canadiens' prospect was ejected from the game since fighting/punching is forbidden in the NCAA according to Rule 48. Generally speaking, a player who throws a punch in the NCAA will be ejected from the game and be suspended for their team's next game.

However, in this particular situation, Fowler not only threw a punch, but he did it with his blocker, which could have caused serious damage. It will be interesting to see if the NCAA decides to impose a stronger punishment. Boston College head coach Greg Brown explained:

I think the combination of how the game was going and the fact that the guy made contact as he went through, and the puck ended up in the net, it had him react not in his normal, even-keeled fashion.

While fighting is strictly prohibited by the league, Fowler's reaction is not all that surprising. There has been numerous instances in hockey history of goaltenders being injured when a player collided with them. For Canadiens' fans, this no doubt will bring back the Carey Price - Chris Kreider incident. While Price refused to pin the early end of his career on Kreider, many fans still believe it was a factor.

Speaking of the Canadiens' former face of the franchise, he once threw a punch with his blocker quite similar to what Fowler did last night, but he did it in the NHL after Kyle Palmieri made contact with him. However, Price followed it up with quite a few punch while defensemen Jeff Petry looked on in disbelief and tried to pull Palmieri out of harms' way. Amazingly, Price was only assessed a roughing minor on the play and received no further discipline.

Price could have suffered another knee injury on that play, which is probably what made him his normally even keel temper.

We'll be keeping an eye out for Fowler's punishment in the next few days. The Eagles' next game is scheduled against Providence on Nov. 19, so the verdict should be out before then.

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