Well, it's Olympic hockey time, and you know what that means: SPORTSMANSHIP!  COMMUNISTS!  JINGOISM!  MIRACLES! 

Granted, tonight's fight didn't take place during the Olympics but at the 1987 World Junior Championships.  And while there was very little sportsmanship displayed and no miracles performed, there was plenty of jingoism (Don Cherry was in the announcers booth after all) and a shitload of Communists. 

The now infamous Punch-up in Piestany was the final game of the round robin tournament.  While the Soviets(2-3-1) had been eliminated from medal contention, a win would give the Canadians(4-1-1) the silver medal, and a victory by 5 goals or more would have given Canada the gold medal based on goal differential with Finland (5-1-1).  

The game got off to a tense start.  The players seemed to be taking full advantage of the inexperience of the officiating crew, in particular Norwegian referee Hans Ronning who had little international experience and received the job in part as a nod to Norway having been awarded the 1994 Winter Olympics.  Players spent most of the game cross-checking and slashing each other with impunity, while the officials ignored the infractions.  After scoring Canada's opening goal, the always classy Theo Fleury made matters worse by sliding across center ice on his knees, pretending his stick was a machine gun and "shooting" at the Soviet bench (eat your heart out, Kyle Beach). 

Midway through the game, Canada led 4-2 and the only question seemed to be whether the Canadian team would be able to reach the 5 goal differential they needed to secure the gold medal.  Unfortunately, we'd never find out, as another skirmish after a face-off turned into an all out line brawl and finally a bench clearing donny-brook that would live in infamy:



When the dust settled, both teams were disqualified from the tournament, all their records stricken from the books, and all but two players suspended for 18 months (later reduced to 6) from international competition.  The two players who ducked punishment were Canadian backup goaltender Jimmy Waite and Pierre Turgeon, who was later vilified by his teammates for refusing to leave the bench during the fight.

Ultimately, the careers of the players were relatively unscathed.  7 of the Russian players went on to the NHL (5 would win Stanley Cups) and 19 of the 20 Canadians would also reach the NHL.  Theo Fleury went on to become the first (known) Blackhawk to spend 3 days on a crack bender in a Chicago housing project.

And somewhere in an empty arena in Slovakia, Pierre Turgeon's sorry ass is probably still sitting on that bench.