SOREL-TRACY, Que. - It's Friday night and for just over 2,000 people in this town of 35,000, that means it's either hockey night or fight night.
Luckily, they can get both in the same building.
The Colisee Cardin in this town about 65 kilometres northeast of Montreal on the shores of the St-Lawrence River was packed on Friday for a North American Hockey League game between the hometown Sorel-Tracy Mission and the rival St-Jean Summum Chiefs.
But more important than the game itself for the crowd of 2,115 was the highly anticipated fourth instalment in a season-long series of fights between the league's undisputed heavyweight Steve (The Crash) Bosse of the Chiefs and Jon (Nasty) Mirasty of the Mission.
While the NHL tries to clean up its public image in the wake of the Chris Simon stick-swinging and Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore incidents, the North American Hockey League -- not to be confused with the U.S. junior league that goes by the same name -- brings in fans with the promise of rough hockey and lots of fights.
For instance, Friday night's game had a Wrestlemania-style billing of Bosse-Mirasty IV, and there was no doubt right from the opening warm-up that's what the fans were there to see.
"I would say three-quarters of the people who are here came to see them fight,'' said Jean Guevremont, 22, a Mission season-ticket holder from nearby Berthierville.
Guevremont has been attending Mission games since he was about 10 years old -- his uncle is a shareholder in the team -- and he has seen his share of fights in the rough and tumble league over the years.
He says none were better than Bosse-Mirasty III on Jan. 26 in Sorel-Tracy, a fight that had at least 50 punches thrown in about 45 seconds and left Bosse's face and jersey a bloody mess.
"The fighting, the big hits, the rough stuff,'' Guevremont said. "That's what I like.''
Bosse and Mirasty have taken very different roads to arrive at the same place, as the two most feared goons in Quebec's roughest hockey league.
Mirasty, a 24 year-old from Meadow Lake, Sask., played three seasons of major junior hockey in the Western Hockey League and another two seasons in the U.S., where he played semi-pro in the East Coast and United Hockey Leagues before finding his way to Quebec.
In 88 career games over three seasons with the Mission, Mirasty has eight goals, 11 assists and 771 penalty minutes.
"The money's much better up here than it is in the States for guys like me,'' Mirasty says, noting he pulls in at least $2,000 a week, though he wouldn't give an exact figure. "The way the NHL is now, the chances are pretty slim I'm going to get a chance. So I may as well make some money.''
Bosse, on the other hand, never played higher than double-C hockey as a kid growing up in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and he spent most of his youth playing house league. But the one thing he has always known how to do is fight.
"I always used to get into fights in the streets, but ever since I started playing in this league I haven't gotten into a single street fight,'' said Bosse, 25. "I make my living with my hands, but the legal way.''
Bosse is in his fourth year in the North American Hockey League, and in 127 career games he has two goals, four assists and 898 penalty minutes.
He is by far the most popular player in the league -- the four biggest crowds in Sorel-Tracy this yeahave come to watch him "play'' -- and Bosse will cash in on that notoriety on June 1 when he makes his mixed martial arts debut in Montreal at TKO 29: Resurrection.
But first, he had an appointment with Mirasty on Friday night to take care of.
The game had two simultaneous fights break out less than two minutes after the opening faceoff, which served as a sort of undercard for the main event to come a few minutes later.
After the Chiefs opened the scoring at 4:12 of the first period, Mirasty lined up for the ensuing faceoff opposite Chiefs winger Louis-Philippe Charbonneau. As soon as the puck was dropped, Mirasty hooked Charbonneau and directed him back to his bench so Bosse could jump over the boards. When he did, everything that was happening on the ice stopped as both players removed their gloves and helmets, took a skate around the rink to prepare themselves and eventually met at centre ice.
The crowd broke into chants of "Nasty, Nasty'' to cheer on the hometown enforcer, but the fight didn't last very long as Mirasty -- who was fighting despite a broken right hand -- went down after taking a quick flurry of five or six shots to the head. When he arrived at the penalty box, Bosse stood on the boards and taunted the visiting crowd behind him, receiving a shower of beer for his effort.
"Seeing as I win most of my fights, the home crowd always gets on me, and that really pumps me up,'' Bosse said. "The more fans of other teams hate you, the more you know they wish you were on their team. That's why I like it.''
Mirasty said he wanted desperately to have another shot at Bosse, but the chance never came. In the second period, Chiefs coach Pierre Pelletier sent Bosse out for his second shift of the game and, as the puck was dropped for an offensive zone faceoff, Bosse jumped Mission winger and assistant captain Eric Labelle.
It was the second fight of the game for both players which means an automatic game misconduct, but that represented only two of the 12 match penalties handed out during the game that featured a total of 11 fights.
Bosse made no apologies for jumping Labelle because he said there was a certain degree of strategy involved.
"I knew I had to get him out of the game because that guy's a hockey player, and I'm not,'' Bosse said. "I usually try to stick around for the third period in case something happens, but I always want to get my two fights in. This time, though, I had a bit of a bonus for Labelle's head.''
Though Friday's contest was pretty over the top, even for this league, there is little question the fans loved it and left the rink fully satisfied. So while the NHL tries to clean up its image, the season-ticket holder Guevremont says no one had better lay a finger on his favourite league.
"The league would have trouble surviving if there wasn't as much fighting,'' he said, shaking his head. "Some people come only to see the fights, others come to see the nice plays, and others come for both. If you took out the fighting, you'd only be left with the ones who want to see nice plays. You'd be left with NHL fans.''
