A swedish player will be sitting on the sidelines for a bit after taking out a referee with a trip behind the net during a game. The incident happened over the weekend in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second highest tier of hockey in Sweden.
With Sodertalje taking on Mora, Sodertalje's Emil Alba took out referee Robin Jacobsson with a trip behind the Mora's net in the second period. There was no call on the play. However, it was reported to HockeyAllsvenskan's disciplinary committee, which decided on a two-game suspension.
It's hard to say that the trip was intentional, given the speed with which everything happened. Regardless, HockeyAllsvenskan's Disciplinary Committee says Alba should have at least made an effort to avoid the collision.
A similar incident happened in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) earlier this year when Albin Lundin of Timra was suspended for three games for tripping a linesman. However, the suspension was overturned on appeal to Sweden's National Sports Board.
