Chris Ferraro recovering from ugly on-ice incident

Horrific. Scary. Cowardly.

Those were just a few of the words used to describe an ugly incident that took place during Saturday's ECHL game between the Wranglers and the Salmon Kings in Victoria, British Columbia.

During a stoppage in play midway through the second period of Las Vegas' 5-4 victory, Victoria enforcer Robin Gomez (6 feet 2 inches, 210 pounds) jumped off the Salmon Kings' bench and landed a sucker punch to the face of unsuspecting Wranglers center Chris Ferraro (5-9, 170).

The force of the blow flattened Ferraro, who fell backward and slammed his head onto the ice, opening a gash that required eight stitches to close. Ferraro, who suffered his third concussion of the season, said he was knocked unconscious for about 15 minutes as a pool of blood formed around the back of his head.

Gomez, 26, was automatically suspended for one game for being assessed a match penalty for fighting, but the left wing -- who has two points and 152 penalty minutes in 38 games this season -- will likely receive a much harsher punishment today, when the ECHL is expected to announce additional suspensions from the incident.

"From a personal standpoint, I hope the league takes this very seriously and gives him the utmost punishment, because this was deliberate and this was intentional. He thought it out," said Ferraro, 35, a former NHL player in his 14th professional hockey season.

"The bottom line is the guy sucker punched me and should be punished for his actions. He went out there with a purpose, with an intention, whether it was ordered by the coach or he did it by himself, and one intention was to sucker punch me and hurt me, and he did what he wanted to do.

"I've played a lot of years and this is the worst thing I've ever seen in my hockey career -- the absolute worst. It was the most cowardly thing I've ever seen in my entire hockey career."

Ferraro, who is the second-leading scorer on the Wranglers with 51 points after his twin brother Peter (57), underwent a brain scan in a hospital emergency room after the game that determined there was no bleeding in his brain.

Ferraro, who said "from my neck up, I'm in a lot of pain," has an appointment with a neurologist scheduled for today.

"The outcome could've been a lot worse," he said. "I hit the back of my head on the ice, but God forbid my helmet came completely off and my skull cracked, my brains are all over the ice and I'm in a coma right now and brain dead for the rest of my life. The consequences could be a lot worse.

"Is the league going to wait for that to happen to hand out stiff penalties or are they going to make a point of it and make sure something like this never happens again?"

Wranglers forward Adam Cracknell was on the ice when the incident took place and said "it was pretty scary to see that."

"Gomez, being the tough guy that he is, hit him pretty hard," Cracknell said. "That's probably the worst thing I've ever seen playing."

Wranglers forward Marco Peluso reportedly hit Gomez with a sucker punch of his own in retaliation for the incident. He wasn't penalized in the game, but is expected to be suspended today for one to five games.

Salmon Kings general manager Dan Belisle told the Victoria Times Colonist that the incident "got out of hand and Robin must accept the repercussion of what happened ... and we are not going to tolerate that sort of thing."

• NOTES -- Tonight's game between the Wranglers and Stockton is scheduled to start at 9:05 p.m. in conjunction with the team's first "clubbing night" promotion. Admittance is open to ages 18 and older, and those 17 and younger must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

"Psychic Tanya," comedian Amazing Jonathan's assistant, will host a pregame cocktail party -- open to ages 21 and older -- starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Orleans Arena and DJ Franzen will entertain throughout the game.

Go-go dancers and models from Red agency will perform, R-rated movie clips from films such as "Slap Shot" and "Airplane" may be shown on the jumbotron during the game, and fans ages 21 and older are encouraged to join Wranglers players for an after-game party at Spin nightclub.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0354.