On this day in 1992, the Fargo Holiday Round Robin Hockey Tournament turned ugly as a penalty-filled game between Fargo North and Winnipeg Maples overshadowed the action on the ice.

Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:

Hockey tourney turns ugly

By Dave Kolpack
Staff Writer

Of all the post-Christmas events, few have a longer label than the Fargo Holiday Round Robin Hockey Tournament. On Tuesday, however, the name was unofficially changed. To the Fargo Holiday Farce.

It wasn’t enough that Fargo South opened the day with a 14-2 victory over gritty but undermanned Winnipeg West Kildonan, which brought just 12 players to town because of holiday conflicts. The Bruins outshot the Wolverines 70-13. It wasn’t pretty.

But it got worse.

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What should have been an interesting matchup between Winnipeg Maples and Fargo North was marred by 32 penalties. Maples was whistled for 22 of those, including three game misconducts and one 10-minute misconduct.

After nearly three hours of painful viewing, including an unscheduled intermission with 1:37 left in the second period, North won 4-1.

“It was ugly,” said North coach Jeff Arf. “Things got out of control.”

The tournament concludes today at the Coliseum with two games between rivals. West Kildonan will play Maples at 5 p.m., with North and South squaring off for the title at 7:30.

North 4, Maples 0

It was a busy night for referees Tim O’Leary and Larry Murphy, who called seven penalties in the first period, 14 penalties in the second period and 11 penalties in the third period. Needless to say, there were different versions of the same event.

Maples coach Mark Miles thought he was homered.

“We were down two men early in the game and then one of their guys cross-checked and then speared one of our guys,” Miles said. “From then on it just seemed lopsided. Mainly it was just the one gentleman who thought he was the best referee in the world. He called all the misconducts.”

Not everyone saw it that way.

Arf nodded when asked if it seemed like Maples was headhunting.

“I think they were running at us,” Arf said. “(Assistant coach) Donnie Smith and I try to control our guys. I don’t know, I suppose if you ask them they’ll say we were running at them.”

Miles noted that he called a timeout in the second period in an effort to calm down his team.

The worst stretch came in the last three minutes of the second period when Maples took six penalties.

Lee Montgomery was called for checking from behind at 12:04, topped by a 10-minute misconduct. Kyle Jansen received a game misconduct at 12:17. Derek Williamson went off for cross-checking at 13:03. Then Brad Onofre chucked was nailed for high-sticking and a game misconduct at 13:23. That’s when O’Leary and Murphy sent both teams to their locker rooms.

The last 1:37 of the second period and the entire 15-minute third period was played after the ice was resurfaced.

FIRST PERIOD: 1, North, Oldham (Holm), 4:45 (pp).
Penalties: Maples 6, North 1.

SECOND PERIOD: 2, North, Hoffman (Holm), 5:31 (pp).
Penalties: Maples 10, North 4.

THIRD PERIOD: 3, North, Wilhelmi (Oldham, Holm), 8:00 (pp).
4, North, Oldham (Wilhelmi, Holm), 11:11 (pp).
Penalties: Maples 6, North 5.

GOALIE SAVES: Maples (Bannerman) 9-10-12—31.
North (Fugle) 6-8-11—25.

South 14, West Kildonan 2

Plenty of Bruins stepped forward to pad their statistics. It was a four-point day for two players, Matt Giedt (three goals, one assist) and Josh Brekke (two goals, two assists).

FIRST PERIOD: 1, South, Kambeitz, 3:34.
2, South, Brekke (Gast, Davis), 6:31 (pp).
3, South, Moos (Kambeitz, Hashbarger), 7:16.
4, South, Giedt (Swanson, Johnson), 12:53.
Penalties: WK 2, South 1.

SECOND PERIOD: 5, South, Giedt (Stai), 3:48.
6, South, Davis (Gast, Brekke), 4:38 (pp).
7, South, Moos (Hashbarger, Kambeitz), 8:43.
8, South, Brekke, 10:20 (sh).
9, South, Aberle (Johnson), 10:35 (sh).
10, South, Roscoe (Stai, Lisburg), 14:18.
11, South, Giedt (Roscoe), 14:37.
Penalties: WK 2, South 2.

THIRD PERIOD: 12, South, Davis (Gast, Brekke), 2:19.
13, South, Cave (Azaransky, Eccles), 5:00.
14, South, Brunette (Giedt), 11:10.
Penalties: WK 1, South 0.

GOALIE SAVES: WK (Busceti) 16-6-18—40; (Tarnowicz) 2-14-x—16.
South (Riegal) 2-3-6—11.