Hockey crowd goes wild

Crystal Lake South’s Shane Gustafson moves with the puck during the first period Wednesday in Barrington. The game was suspended with Barrington up, 7-3, after someone in the crowd set off a smoke bomb. (Daniel J. Murphy - dmurphy@shawmedia.com)

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BARRINGTON – Crystal Lake South’s night at the Barrington Ice Arena went from promising to disappointing to just plain bizarre.

The Gators’ hockey team hoped to sweep its Metro Central Division season series with Barrington and played the Broncos even through most of two periods. Barrington scored a pair of late second-period goals, then added two more in the third for a 7-3 lead when the game took a strange twist.

Someone in the crowd set off a smoke bomb, and with 3:27 remaining in the game, fire alarms in the building sounded and emergency personnel soon arrived at the scene. Game officials were uncertain what to do, so both teams left for their locker rooms.

The players were called back to the ice and warmed up again to finish the game while Barrington police and Lake County sheriff’s office personnel sorted out what to do. After breathing in the smoke, two asthmatic South players became ill and returned to their locker room. At that point, the game was suspended and will be finished at a later date.

Center Joey Bower and goalie Adam Wiese were taken by ambulance to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital.

“It was chaotic,” Gators left wing Jake Bigos said. “Out of control.”

One parent who served as Metro Central security for the game said the smoke bomb came from the Barrington student section.

“If this would happen anywhere, it would be here,” South coach Rich Perillo said. “We weren’t really sure what to do.”

Although the smoke bomb apparently came from the home team, Perillo said there was no talk of Barrington forfeiting the game.

“It wasn’t bad for people who are not asthmatic, but Joey and Adam were huffing pretty hard,” right wing Jordan Ross said.

South (21-9-2 overall, 12-1 Metro Central) had beaten the Broncos earlier this season for the first time anyone could remember in the program’s history.

The Gators’ Shane Gustafson scored first. In the second period, Bower had two breakaways during a shorthanded shift, the second of which drew a penalty shot. Bower scored and Ross later added a goal on a 5-on-3 power play to tie the score at 3-3. The Broncos’ two goals in the final 1:44 of the second period were too much for South.

“We took a lot of stupid penalties and they were scoring on their power-play chances,” Bigos said. “It’s really disappointing because we came out and got the early lead, then it disappeared.”

Charlie Grabowski had two goals and three assists, Nathan Aloisio had two goals and an assist and Connor Schmeling had two goals for Barrington.

“Our penalty kill wasn’t the best,” Gators defenseman Jack Moehling said. “It was not knowing where they were all the time. We couldn’t stop their power play.”