04-05-2007, 09:50 AM
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 | Senior Member | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 7,350
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 Spitting Rangers need to beat Habs
For the Islanders playoff hopes to remain alive, they need the Rangers to beat Montreal tonight and the Isles have to beat the Leafs. Ice Girls: Punish Rangers for slashing, spitting - Newsday.com Quote:
Hostile behavior is expected whenever the Islanders and Rangers clash in one of the NHL's fiercest rivalries, but now the Islanders' Ice Girls are involved.
According to two of the women, the Rangers should be penalized for slashing, spitting and verbal abuse during television timeouts in the first period of Tuesday night's game at Nassau Coliseum, won by the Islanders, 3-2, in a shootout.
During commercial breaks, teams of three Ice Girls clean loose ice known as "snow" in the goal and the blue-painted goaltender's crease in front of the goal line. But Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist declined to move and used his stick to whack the squeegee Kelli Higgins, 23, was using to push the snow into a pile during the first TV timeout, knocking the butt end of the squeegee stick into her stomach.
"I said 'Excuse me' maybe two or three times," Higgins said yesterday. "He didn't move and didn't say anything, so I gave up and went around him.
"The tip of my squeegee kind of hit the tip of his stick. I don't know if he thought I did that on purpose or whatever, but he took a big windup and slashed the squeegee pretty good. It startled me a little bit. It didn't feel great, but I wouldn't say I was injured or in a ton of pain. I was shocked. "
The Ice Girls alternate jobs, and Chanel Benson, 19, had the squeegee during the second TV timeout. This time, a linesman told her to clean around Lundqvist, 24, but not in the crease or the net. As she was leaving the ice, Benson skated near the boards in front of both benches, which are separated only by a panel of glass located at the center red line.
"All of a sudden, my back got wet," said Benson, who was wearing a standard outfit of pants and top that leaves the midriff area exposed. "I believe one of the Rangers players who was sitting along the wall spit on my back. It had to be on purpose because I wasn't directly in front of anyone to spit and not realize I was there. "
Two Ice Girls then notified Tim Beach, Islanders' vice president of game operations, that Benson was crying. Beach said he saw two or three small wet spots on the back of her pants. Benson already had wiped off her exposed back.
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