The Avalanche–Red Wings brawl was a large-scale on-ice melee that occurred on March 26, 1997, at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, between two National Hockey League (NHL) rivals: the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings. The brawl, which has been nicknamed Bloody Wednesday, Fight Night at the Joe and the Brawl in Hockeytown, stemmed from a previous on-ice incident between the two teams during the 1996 Western Conference Finals. The game featured 18 fighting major penalties and 144 minutes in penalties. Both the game and brawl are considered a defining moment in modern hockey history.

Previous incident In Game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference Finals, Avalanche right winger Claude Lemieux checked Red Wings center Kris Draper from behind, driving Draper's face into the boards. While not a specific retaliation, earlier in Game 3 of the series, Avalanche defenceman Adam Foote had been hit from behind into the glass by Red Wings winger Vyacheslav Kozlov, resulting in Foote receiving a gash on his forehead. The Avalanche were enraged Kozlov had not been penalized. Lemieux later sucker punched Kozlov, which resulted in him being fined and suspended for the following game.

Lemieux's hit on Draper in Game 6 sent Draper out of the game and into the hospital with a concussion, broken nose, broken jaw, shattered cheek and orbital bone which required reconstructive surgery involving his jaw being wired shut and numerous stitches. The Avalanche went on to upset the Red Wings in six games, eventually winning the Stanley Cup. After the traditional handshakes that take place after a playoff series, former Red Wings winger Dino Ciccarelli said of Lemieux, "I can't believe I shook this guy's friggin' hand after the game, that pisses me right off." Lemieux was fined and suspended for the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Brawls In the next regular season, although the two teams had played each other three times without serious incident, their fourth meeting on the night of March 26 was different.

Prior to the game, Red Wings head coach Scotty Bowman used Lemieux's hit on Draper and his lack of remorse as a rallying cry in order to get his team to add a physical edge to their game. On the day of the game, The Detroit News printed a "wanted" poster of Lemieux with a prison number under his photo under the headline "A Time for Revenge", and compared Lemieux to a carjacker.

As tensions mounted early in the first period, defencemen and enforcer Brent Severyn (Avalanche) and Jamie Pushor (Red Wings) fought at 4:45 of the first period, followed by a fight between forwards Kirk Maltby (Red Wings) and Rene Corbet (Avalanche) at 10:14 where Maltby dropped Corbet.

The major melee ensued at the 18:22 mark, leading to the third fight. Shortly after a collision between Red Wings center Igor Larionov and Avalanche forward Peter Forsberg where Forsberg knocked Larionov onto his backside away from the play in front of the Red Wings bench, Red Wings enforcer Darren McCarty seized the chance to avenge his Grind Line teammate by escaping from the grasps of Adam Foote and a linesman and turning to cold-cock Lemieux. McCarty laid many blows on Lemieux, who fell to the ice and covered his head; McCarty managed to land a few more punches, drag Lemieux to the boards and knee him in the head before the two were separated by officials.

Seeing what McCarty was doing to Lemieux, Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy skated out of his net to defend his teammate, but was intercepted by Red Wings forward Brendan Shanahan, who hit Roy with a vicious body check that sent him sprawling to the ice. While Shanahan and defenceman Adam Foote tangled, Red Wings goaltender Mike Vernon went out to center ice to try to grab Foote off of Shanahan. Roy saw this and got Vernon's attention by pulling him off his teammate, which ended up escalating to a fight when Vernon and Roy dropped their masks, gloves, and blockers. While the fight between Roy and Vernon wound down, McCarty dragged Lemieux's body to where Draper was standing on the Red Wings bench.

After the smoke cleared, Forsberg and Larionov each received matching minor penalties for roughing; Roy and Vernon were each assessed matching minor penalties for leaving the crease, in addition to major penalties for fighting. McCarty escaped being assessed a major penalty and only received a double-minor for roughing, which gave Colorado a power play. Vernon was so convinced that he was ejected that he went to his locker stall only to have a team official race in to tell Vernon to put his gear back on and get back in net. Forsberg did not return due to an injury he sustained during the scrum, and the McCarty/Lemieux incident left patches of blood on the ice. There was even more blood when Roy sustained a cut on his eyebrow.

Fifteen seconds after the Roy/Vernon fight, Avalanche winger Adam Deadmarsh and Red Wings defenceman Vladimir Konstantinov dropped the gloves in another fight for the final fight in the first period.

There were more fights (and four stoppages) in the second period: a fight between Shanahan and Foote four seconds into the second period, simultaneous fights between Avalanche winger Mike Keane and Red Wings winger Tomas Holmstrom, which occurred for the most part on the ice, and between Severyn and Red Wings defenceman Aaron Ward at 3:34 in (Severyn and Ward were ejected for a secondary fight), McCarty and Deadmarsh at 7:24 (McCarty also received a roughing), and between Pushor and Avalanche defenceman Uwe Krupp at 11:26.

When the third period ended, the score was tied 5–5. Incidentally, it was McCarty who scored the winner against Roy 39 seconds into overtime, assisted by Shanahan and Larionov.

Aftermath Mike Vernon, who won his 300th career game, believed the brawl-filled game "brought the Red Wings together" in time for the playoffs. Red Wings broadcaster Ken Kal surmised that the game was a turning point as far as the team's success went. Avalanche head coach Marc Crawford, meanwhile, wondered why McCarty did not receive a game misconduct for his largely one-sided instigation and subsequent fight with Lemieux, while Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix immediately protested the game to NHL officials. Avalanche right winger Mike Keane criticized the Red Wings for not settling the issue when both teams played in Denver.

A similar free-for-all between the teams took place on May 22, during Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals at Joe Louis Arena, when during a penalty-filled game, Marc Crawford was seen screaming obscenities at Scotty Bowman across the glass separating the two benches. Bowman then told Crawford, "I knew your father before you did, and I don't think he'd be very proud of how you're acting." The Wings won that game 6–0 and went on to win the series in six games, en route to capturing the Stanley Cup. Crawford was fined $10,000 for the tirade.

The next season during a game between the two teams on November 11, 1997, McCarty and Lemieux began to throw punches seconds after the opening faceoff, much to the delight of the Joe Louis Arena crowd.

On April 1, 1998, Joe Louis Arena was the site of another brawl. This time Patrick Roy challenged and then squared off with Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood at center ice. The referees called more severe penalties this time, as Roy and Osgood both received game misconducts. The two teams had a combined 218 penalty minutes. The Red Wings won the game 2–0, and would go on to win its second consecutive Stanley Cup.

A game between the Red Wings and Avalanche at the Pepsi Center on March 23, 2002, broke into a much smaller scrum when Red Wings winger Kirk Maltby crashed into Patrick Roy. Roy took exception and began retaliating. The scrum continued when Red Wings goaltender Dominik Hašek skated down the length of the ice to confront Roy but he slipped, which caused him to trip Roy. Infuriated, Roy threw off his glove and mask, but the two were restrained by the officials, thus preventing Roy from fighting a third Red Wings goaltender. The Red Wings won this game 2–0, and eventually the Stanley Cup.

On March 26, 2022, 25 years after the brawl, McCarty and Lemieux met again at a local bar in Michigan to rewatch this game.

ESPN released an E:60 documentary, Unrivaled, about the rivalry, specifically about this game, on June 26, 2022.

Game summary

Scoring summaryPeriodTeamGoalAssist(s)TimeScore1st COL Valeri Kamensky (24) Peter Forsberg (54) 03:29 1–0 COL2nd DET Sergei Fedorov (29) Larry Murphy (33) and Steve Yzerman (60) 00:35 1–1 COL Valeri Kamensky (25) – pp Keith Jones (22) and Sandis Ozolins (40) 01:12 2–1 COL DET Martin Lapointe (13) Vyacheslav Kozlov (21) 03:08 2–2 COL Rene Corbet (10) Stephane Yelle (15) 06:20 3–2 COL COL Adam Deadmarsh (32) Sylvain Lefebvre (11) and Eric Lacroix (17) 13:34 4–2 COL DET Nicklas Lidstrom (15) – pp Steve Yzerman (61) 19:40 4–3 COL3rd COL Valeri Kamensky (26) Stephane Yelle (16) and Claude Lemieux (16) 01:11 5–3 COL DET Martin Lapointe (14) Sergei Fedorov (29) and Larry Murphy (34) 08:27 5–4 COL DET Brendan Shanahan (46) Igor Larionov (40) and Jamie Pushor (7) 09:03 5–5OT DET Darren McCarty (19) Brendan Shanahan (39) and Igor Larionov (41) 00:39 6–5 DET Penalty summary Period Team Player Penalty Time PIM 1st COL Scott Young Interference 01:20 2:00 COL Brent Severyn Fighting – major 04:45 5:00 DET Jamie Pushor Fighting – major 04:45 5:00 COL Joe Sakic Interference 05:12 2:00 COL Rene Corbet Fighting – major 10:14 5:00 DET Kris Draper Fighting – major 10:14 5:00 DET Kirk Maltby Fighting – major 10:14 5:00 COL Patrick Roy Leaving the crease 18:22 2:00 COL Patrick Roy Fighting – major 18:22 5:00 COL Peter Forsberg Roughing 18:22 2:00 DET Igor Larionov Roughing 18:22 2:00 DET Mike Vernon Leaving the crease 18:22 2:00 DET Mike Vernon Fighting – major 18:22 5:00 DET Darren McCarty Roughing – double minor 18:22 4:00 COL Adam Deadmarsh Cross-checking 18:37 2:00 COL Adam Deadmarsh Fighting – major 18:37 5:00 DET Vladimir Konstantinov Fighting – major 18:37 5:00 2nd COL Adam Foote Fighting – major 00:04 5:00 DET Brendan Shanahan Fighting – major 00:04 5:00 DET Martin Lapointe Roughing 00:56 2:00 COL Mike Keane Fighting – major 03:34 5:00 COL Brent Severyn Fighting – major 03:34 5:00 COL Brent Severyn Game misconduct 03:34 10:00 DET Aaron Ward Fighting – major 03:34 5:00 DET Aaron Ward Game misconduct 03:34 10:00 DET Tomas Holmstrom Fighting – major 03:34 5:00 COL Adam Deadmarsh Fighting – major 07:24 5:00 DET Darren McCarty Roughing 07:24 2:00 DET Darren McCarty Fighting – major 07:24 5:00 COL Uwe Krupp Fighting – major 11:26 5:00 DET Jamie Pushor Fighting – major 11:26 5:00 COL Adam Deadmarsh Interference 14:47 2:00 COL Scott Young Hooking 18:38 2:00 3rd COL Sandis Ozolins Cross-checking 06:26 2:00 COL Sandis Ozolins Roughing 06:26 2:00 DET Kirk Maltby Roughing 06:26 2:00 COL Jamie Pushor Holding 14:40 2:00 COL Sandis Ozolins Tripping 16:07 2:00 OT None Shots by period Team 1 2 3 OT Total 8 23 15 1 47 6 7 6 0 19 Power play opportunities Team Goals/Opportunities Colorado 1/6 Detroit 1/6

References