During Saturday night’s second intermission, Komets forward Brad MacMillan walked up to International Hockey League Vice President of Hockey Operations Brad Jones in the press box and said, “How’s it going?” with a sheepish grin.

Ironically on Saturday, Jones was delivering the new IHL rule books he may end up throwing at MacMillan today after an earlier first-period melee against Muskegon. MacMillan could receive a 10-game suspension for leaving the penalty box to take part in a fight and another 10 games for abuse of an official after he shoved a linesman out of the way to get at Muskegon’s Jason Lawmaster.

The longest suspension a Komet has ever received was 12 games to Robin Bawa at the end of the 1987-88 season when he received 50 penalty minutes during a game at Kalamazoo.

The incident Saturday started when MacMillan poked goaltender Sebastien Centomo as he covered the puck to stop play. Muskegon defenseman Tom Galvin slashed MacMillan, and MacMillan shoved Galvin in the face, knocking him to the ice. That started more pushing and shoving. Muskegon star Robin Bouchard got a couple of MacMillan right fists in the face, and the Komets’ Lincoln Kaleigh Schrock ended up fighting Muskegon’s John DiPace. MacMillan and Centomo received roughing minors.

“There was a level of frustration that their players like MacMillan deliberately went after our guys, and stuck the goalie to start it and then went after Tommy Galvin, who isn’t a fighter,” Muskegon coach Rich Kromm said. “The situation was not taken care of by the referee to our satisfaction.”

On the next faceoff, Lumberjacks tough guy Robin Big Snake, normally a left wing, lined up against Komets center Colin Chaulk. Big Snake didn’t try to win the faceoff, driving to cross-check Chaulk, who saw it coming and turned his head before going down with Big Snake on his back continuing to throw punches. As the linesmen broke up Big Snake and Chaulk, Lawmaster jumped Komets forward Konstantin Shafranov, annually the Komets’ least-penalized player, belting him several times even after he was lying on his back on the ice.

“When a guy like Bouchard who scores 50 goals a year and is a guy on this team you want to look out for, and MacMillan never comes once to ask me to fight and he goes after Bouchard, obviously he has to know something is coming for one of their players,” Big Snake said. “MacMillan just has to have a little respect. He just has to think next time. I’m not a guy who can tolerate that.”

Chaulk said Bouchard told him that Big Snake’s attack was in retaliation for MacMillan hitting Bouchard.

“It might have had something to do with me hitting Bouchard a couple of times,” MacMillan said. “I’m pretty sure Muskegon’s coach had a pretty good idea what he was doing sending those guys out.”

Seeing Shafranov and Chaulk being attacked, MacMillan opened the penalty box door to yell at Big Snake and eventually left the box to jump Lawmaster, sending the linesman who was escorting Lawmaster to the penalty box sprawling with a shove. After that fight, Big Snake left the Muskegon penalty box to taunt MacMillan, who was on his way to the dressing room.

MacMillan and Lawmaster received game misconducts, and Big Snake received two game misconducts, one for being the aggressor in the fight. The IHL does not call instigation penalties until the final five minutes of a game.

“Lawmaster had Shaf on the ground hitting him, and there was nobody to break it up,” MacMillan said. “I know what I did was wrong, but somebody has to step in to help there. That’s unnecessary. It was unfortunate the way everything happened, and I’m sure there’s going to be a suspension dealt out, but what do you do?”

Komets coach Al Sims said he wishes MacMillan had stayed in the penalty box but understands his frustration. Sims believes the Lumberjacks players were told to fight.

“I don’t know by who, but they went out there and obviously did what someone told them,” Sims said. “They did not do that on their own.”

Kromm said he never told Big Snake to fight and that the Komets as the home team had the last line change after he put Big Snake and Lawmaster on the ice.

“We didn’t say anything to them,” Kromm said. “Those guys went out there. I think certain players have different roles on the team, just like MacMillan has a role for them. I put (Todd) Robinson’s line out, he puts MacMillan out there in an offensive-zone faceoff. He can say what he wants. I put Big Snake out there with his line, they are turning the rotation, and he comes back with Chaulk. I didn’t say anything to Robin about that. Robin was obviously trying to send a message. They are sending messages as well.”

Both teams will likely be playing short-handed for a while because suspended players continue to count against a team’s 20-man active roster and cannot be replaced.

“I have confidence in the league that they will give the necessary suspensions to both sides that protects the players, the integrity of the game and the league,” Chaulk said.

In another irony, a Saturday Quad-Cities Online story quoted new IHL Commissioner Dennis Hextall about how he’d like to curtail what he considers “goon” hockey.

“I like the fights that are spontaneous, but I don’t like, let’s call it, ‘staged fighting,’” Hextall said.

IHL owners, including the Komets’ Franke brothers, have said they believe the majority of fans love fighting. Judging by crowds following past events, Saturday night’s activities have all but guaranteed the Fort Wayne-Muskegon games will be big sellers all season, including when the teams meet Nov. 15 in Muskegon and Nov. 20 in Fort Wayne.

They’ll probably draw even larger crowds when MacMillan and Big Snake can both be on the ice at the same time. If he receives a 20-game suspension, MacMillan will not play until Dec. 29.