1997 WHC - Canada vs Czech Rep brawl

HELSINKI (CP) -- Canadian Owen Nolan, the central figure in a wild melee at the world hockey championships, says he has nothing to apologize for. The San Jose Shark right-winger was one of four players -- two Canadians and two from the Czech Republic -- suspended for one game by the International Ice Hockey Federation. “As far as what I did, I’d probably do it again,“ Nolan said Thursday. “I’ve never seen stickwork like that in my life. “I’ve never been speared so much in my whole career, let along one game.“ Not everyone saw Wednesday’s brawl, in the dying minutes of a 5-3 loss to the Czech Republic, that way. In Finland’s largest daily newspaper, the Helsinki Sanomat, columnist Juhani Syvainen wrote: “The Canadian professionals . . . should be ashamed of themselves. Owen Nolan was not the only anti-hero on the ice. “Canadians attacked the Czechs in such an organized way that you might have suspected the coach gave the order to at