Saskatoon-born player owns up to causing N.S. hockey brawl

A Saskatoon-born player’s comments may have started a massive hockey brawl in Nova Scotia last week.

The bench-clearing melee between the St. Francis Xavier X-Men and Acadia Axemen on Saturday saw players throwing punches and sticks at each other during the third period of a game at Acadia, located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

In the end, eight players from St. FX were ejected along with five from Acadia. A review after the incident led the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) conference to suspend 15 players in total, as well as both head coaches.

A statement issued Thursday by one of those players – Rodney Southam, a Saskatoon-born Acadia student-athlete – shed light on what started the brawl.

“I said something I wish I could take back,” he wrote.

“The four days since February 2 have been among the worst I have experienced in hockey and in my and my family’s life — and it’s because of something I said.”

He noted it all began during a stoppage of play with about 12 minutes left in the third period when he got tangled up with a St. FX player and ended up being pushed into the bench.

Southam said he turned and saw X-Men forward Sam Studnicka spraying him with a water bottle, and chose to fire back an insult.

“You look like a little (expletive) rapist,” Southam told the player.

What the former Saskatoon Contact said he didn’t know at the time was that Studnicka and the X-Men were particularly sensitive to comments around sexual assault because of a relationship the team has with a sexual assault survivor.

“Immediately after my comments to Sam, I realized something more was happening because of the reaction from the team and surrounding coaches … I take full responsibility for saying something I should never have said,” Southam wrote in his statement.

Minutes later Southam was sent out to take a faceoff against Studnicka, and the brawl began.

In statements earlier this week, Studnicka and his coach Brad Peddle indicated other teams had been informed several seasons ago to avoid taunts about sexual assault, due to the sensitivity of the subject for the St. FX X-Men.

Southam said he was unaware of that sensitivity.

He also noted in his statement that he regularly faces taunts calling him a rapist, stemming from a sexual assault allegation made against him during his WHL career. He maintained he did not commit the assault, and the allegations didn’t proceed.

“Because the taunts I endured are never far below the surface and are always in the back of my mind, that’s why I think I said what I said in the heat of the moment on Saturday. I do know I wish I could take that word back and I should have known better,” he wrote.

Southam added he’s had to shut down his social media accounts since the Feb. 2 brawl, because of threats made to him after St. FX released their statements earlier in the week.

He said the two organizations’ athletic directors have been in contact to potentially arrange a time when Southam can travel to Antigonish, where St. FX is based, and meet with Studnicka face-to-face.

“I realize I hurt Sam and his family,” he said.