Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Leafs’ Holzer says he didn’t hit official on purpose

Korbinian Holzer;  Mark Shewchyk

Toronto Maple Leafs’ Korbinian Holzer, left, is held by referee Mark Shewchyk after fighting with Winnipeg Jets’ Zach Bogosian during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto on Saturday, March 16, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)

AP

Things got heated in the later stages of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 6-2 win against the Washington Capitals on Saturday. The most costly moment might have came when Leafs defenseman Korbinian Holzer accidentally punched an official during a fight with Tom Wilson.

(Click here for video of the incident. This post will be updated if an embeddable one becomes available.)

PHT’s Dhiren Mahiban caught up with Holzer, 26, to get his prospective on that situation.

“I had my jersey in my face and I just threw one punch, accidentally hit the linesman,” Holzer said. “It was not on purpose. I’m sorry for that.”

The moment of realization sounded pretty unpleasant.

“I found out when the other linesman was screaming at me,” Holzer said. “Then I looked over. I actually thought I got Wilson there. I was like ‘oh nice’, then I pulled my jersey down and the linesman started screaming at me and I saw the other linesman down I was like ‘oh … that was the wrong guy.’”

Both Holzer and Wilson received five-minute fighting majors and game misconduct penalties during the game. Holzer hasn’t been suspended in his brief NHL career, but it’s probably an understatement to say that he’s at a significant risk for supplemental discipline considering how the league tends to handle these situations.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins