MSU Hockey Player Attacked in Locker Room?

It started with Michigan junior defenseman Steve Kampfer lying on the ice possibly injured following an incident with two Michigan State players during Saturday night’s men’s ice hockey game.

According to a Department of Public Safety report, Tropp was kicked out of the game. After he was kicked out, “a visitor assaulted a hockey player after being upset about an incident that happened during the game.”

DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown said that the incident followed the ejection from the game. She said the player ejected from yesterday's game — which, according to the box score, was Tropp — was in the visitor's locker room and a 48-year-old man from Jackson confronted him.

"We had a parent come crashing into the locker room and fight my player," Comley said to the State News.

According to multiple sources close to the situation, the man was taken to the Yost offices behind the skate rental booth for DPS questioning.

“I heard him tell the officer that he did grab Tropp by the jersey, and they were also holding each other and yelling at each other,” said a person who was in the room during the questioning. The person asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the press on the matter.

The hit on Kampfer was especially poignant, considering his recent history of head injuries. He suffered a fractured skull in an off-ice incident on Oct. 12, was in a neck brace until Nov. 19 and didn't return to game action until Dec. 27. (Ridiculous that they allowed him to play in my opinion)

Kampfer was released from the hospital Sunday after being held for precautionary measures, according to Michigan officials.

“I have a strained neck right now,” Kampfer told the Detroit Free Press in a Sunday phone interview. “I had no relapse of what happened earlier. Hopefully, I’ll be back this weekend.”
Conboy’s initial hit was presumably in retaliation against Kampfer for knocking Tropp off his skates with a clean open-ice hit moments earlier. Tropp received a five-minute major for slashing, two 10-minute misconducts and a double game-disqualification, which means a minimum three-game suspension. But Conboy was just penalized with a double minor for roughing.

“I don’t want to comment on it because I didn’t see it,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said after Saturday's game. “Their coach said he would deal with their player.”

After the game, Michigan State coach Rick Comley quickly condemned his players’ actions.
“They fought hard, and what happened at the end is not good for hockey,” Comley told the State News. “I’ll deal with our kid.”