Mirasty forces Bonvie`s hand and finally gets him to fight on Syracuse home ice

After numerous invitations and attempts to get Dennis Bonvie to fight him on his home ice at the War Memorial in Syracuse this season, Jon Mirasty finally got his wish on Saturday night when the 34 year old Bonvie stepped up for his teammate and answered the bell in his final game ever in Syracuse.

Once again, there were words exchanged in the pre-game warm-ups after Mirasty`s teammate Derek Dorsett and Bonvie circled the red line the same time. At one point Bonvie lifted his stick up over Dorsett`s head and came within an inch of it. Mirasty then got up from his stretching routine and had some choice words for Bonvie. After a brief face to face encounter, it appeared as if Bonvie was not going to accept Mirasty`s challenge to fight once again on this night. That would eventually change however.

Very early in the 2nd period, after Mirasty skated over the red line and dumped the puck into the Wilkes-Barre end, he drove hard behind the net and to the left of Wilkes-Barre goalie John Curry, and laid a devastating body check on Penguins forward Paul Bissonnette, who Mirasty had already fought twice this season. Bissonnette was down and hurt from the hard body check, but play continued. At this point, everyone in the building was waiting for one of Bissonnette`s four teammates on the ice at the time to step up and confront Mirasty. However, it never happened as it was apparent that no one was willing to engage the “Nasty One”. At this point, the Penguins trainer needed to come out on the ice and tend to the injured Bissonnette. Fortunately, Bissonnette was able to skate back to the Wilkes-Barre bench under his own power and seemed to be okay.

Just a couple minutes later, there was another stoppage in play and a face off deep in the Syracuse end. Wilkes-Barre coach Todd Richards sends out tough defenseman Derek Engelland and Dennis Bonvie. Syracuse coach Ross Yates counters with Jon Mirasty. After the Penguins won the draw, and the puck was sent back to Engelled at the point, Mirasty ran into him and stood him up at the blue line. Bonvie then skated in and dropped his stick in front of Mirasty and the gloves and helmets then come off from both players. As both players starting out throwing right hands, Mirasty seemed to get out to the better of the early exchange as he landed a few solid right hands flush to the left side of Bonvie`s face. Bonvie came back with some rights of his own as Mirasty tried quickly switching to his left hand. Mirasty than went back to his right and Bonvie got in tight and grabbed the back of Mirasty`s jersey with both hands. Mirasty then tried going to both the head and body as they were in tight. They then both exchanged a few more right hands before finally being broken up by the linesman. Bonvie then wiped a little blood from the bridge of his nose. It was a very good and entertaining fight with Mirasty coming out with an edge as he landed more on the veteran warrior and AHL legend.

Immediately following the fight, Bonvie skated up to his teammate Paul Bissonnette and rubbed his head saying, “That was for you kid”. This shows you the type of team player that Dennis Bonvie is. This fight is also a great example of how important and instrumental the enforcer role can play on any team. Wilkes-Barre had been playing very uninspired and cowardly hockey until Bonvie stepped up and challenged Mirasty for his team. After the fight, the Penguins team was immediatlely inspired and scored the first goal of the game, and took a 1-0 lead going into the 2nd intermission.

During the 3rd period, you could see the great mutual respect between Mirasty and Bonvie as they were both leaning over of the ends of their respective players benches next to each other having a friendly conversation. At one point you could see Bonvie give Mirasty a rub on his head, as if to say, “Good job kid. The torch is now in your hands”

Unless somehow the unlikely scenario occurs that both the Syracuse Crunch and Wilkes-Barre Penguins advance to the Calder Cup finals, this will be the last Mirasty and Bonvie ever see of each other. They both deserve a standing ovation for the two great battles they put on for the fans this season both in Wilkes-Barre and Syracuse. Good luck to Dennis Bonvie and whatever the future may hold for him. Who knows, maybe he will end up coaching Mirasty one day in the future? Now that would be something.