This is something you never want to see in the sport of hockey.

Three players from the Team Shenzhen hockey team have reportedly been suspended for one year after beating up members of the Hong Kong hockey team on the ice. Team Shenzhen was trailing 11-2 at the time.

The incident occurred during the final game of a tournament put on by The Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association. The Team Shenzhen players involved with the beating were let go by their club immediately following the game.

It’s a disgusting act of violence and you have to wonder what the refs were doing letting it go on as they stood by and watched.

The Hong Kong coach provided some context to what happened on the ice in an Instagram post (translated). It’s important to note the Shenzhen team is also known as Kunlun Red Star.

“Another typical Chinese tournament end up with fighting”, the coach said. “3 fight in the last 2 games, they just lost their mind when we are winning. We were up by 11-2 during the last game against the Kunlun red star U20 team. 7 of their guys going for 5 of us during the last fight against Kunlun red star. All five of our players were defending themselves and the referees didn’t help out at all. They were standing and watching. We were trying to play clean and play with sportsmanship for the whole tournament. I guess it doesn’t work in Mainland China. Cheap shot, dirty, unsportsmanlike is the only words I can think of right now. Feel so mad that I can’t help them out.”

The Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association responded to the incident via a post on Facebook (translated).

“…In the fourth game of yesterday, there was indeed an unpleasant incident. After the Chinese Hockey Association is actively dealing with it; the incident has been resolved. They canceled the shenzhen team’s three foul players for a year to participate in the hockey game. It’s more guaranteed that there won’t be any more of these things in the future. We are grateful to the Chinese Hockey Association for its quick and serious approach! We are full of confidence in the development and exchange of hockey in the next two places! Thank you all for caring!”

These type of things don’t belong in the sport of hockey and we can only hope we don’t see anything like this again in the future.