A Nelson junior hockey coach accused a visiting Kamloops player of racially taunting one of his team members during a Kootenay International Junior Hockey League game Saturday.

After the Leafs鈥� 4-2 win over the Kamloops Storm, assistant coach Adam DiBella was furious with what he said had been insensitive remarks toward a player throughout the game.

鈥淪ometimes winning a game is more than just two points,鈥� said DiBella.

鈥淲hen there is awful, racial language being directed toward our bench from their players 鈥� it just makes you want to get the win even more. Quite honestly, there鈥檚 not a lot of place, not even in the game but in society, for anything like that.鈥�

DiBella declined to name the players involved. He said he complained to the officiating crew during the game, but nothing came of it.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 blame the refs one bit,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey told me they鈥檇 look out for it, but they can鈥檛 make a call they didn鈥檛 hear.鈥�

Storm head coach Steve Gainey said he heard nothing from the officials and thought there may have been a misunderstanding.

鈥淥ne of the things that came out was he said, 鈥榃e鈥檙e back, baby鈥� and the kid took it as 鈥榃e black, baby.鈥� So I think there鈥檚 a place where the kid might be a little sensitive and maybe had it happen in the past, which is understandable,鈥� said Gainey.

鈥淲e looked at it on the bench right away as soon as it came up, because it is obviously something that we would take really seriously within our own organization. So that was the response we got and it was kind of the end of it on our end. 鈥� Nobody in our group, when I challenged the situation, said anything like that came out.鈥�

Both DiBella and Gainey were tossed from the game late in the third period.

The next day, Gainey told Kamloops This Week that Leafs players surrounded the Storm鈥檚 bus with five cars after the game.

鈥淭here was just a lot of continued emotion carried forward from the game from them, in their excitement to win and our frustration in the loss, having gone through a real emotional game on the ice with the amount of drama that we鈥檙e talking about,鈥� he said. 鈥淔or it to carry off the ice was a challenging thing for our boys to deal with.鈥�

Leafs head coach Mario DiBella told the Star his players did not surround the Storm鈥檚 bus and Gainey was not telling the truth.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 a poor excuse for bad conduct by their coaching staff,鈥� said DiBella.

Cole Wyatt scored twice, Shawn Campbell and Reid Wilson had singles and Anderson Violette made 18 saves for the Leafs (11-2-3), who won their 11th straight game.

Chris Thon scored twice for the Storm (4-12-1), who lost for the seventh consecutive contest. Goaltender Ethan Paulin-Hatch stopped 22 shots for Kamloops.

鈥� With files from Kamloops This Week reporter Marty Hastings

tyler.harper@nelsonstar.com
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