For 60 minutes, Penn State and Rhode Island played an intense, hotly contested hockey game -- but you will never hear a thing about it.

The Icers' 7-2 thrashing of Rhode Island was a performance worthy of praise. But all the attention will be directed away from the athletes and towards the ugly brawl that erupted as the teams went through the post-game handshakes moments after the final horn had sounded.

Rhode Island forward Art Hughes punched Icer Darren Wegner as the two were supposed to shake hands. Hughes action precipitated an altercation that would cause seven players to be suspended. Furthermore, Hughes said his blow did not reach its intended target, as Hughes took out his frustration on Wegner, when he meant to strike Penn State center Cliff Graziano.

"That's college hockey, shaking hands at the end of a game. It shouldn't happen," Rhode Island Coach Joe Augustine said. "You can't be battling for 60 minutes and then think that 10 seconds after the game everyone will be over everything that happened. I don't agree with it. It's a nice gesture but that's what happens."

The brawl stems back to an incident that occurred earlier in the third period. Icer Cliff Graziano ran into goalkeeper Garret Bodington and was assessed a two-minute penalty for interference. Had the referee felt that Graziano was intenting to injure Bodington, he would have been given a five minute major penalty and a game misconduct. The contact was ruled accidental by the officials, but Hughes did not agree.

"There is no excuse to go and trip the goalie," Hughes said. "No. 16 goes and upends our goalie. You just don't do that and I know it was intentional."

Penn State Coach Joe Battista expressed his displeasure that the game had to end the way it did. Battista did not think highly of Hughes attack on Wegner while the teams were supposed to be shaking hands.

"If one of my players would ever do that, I'd throw him off the team permanently," Battista said. "It's a cowardly act as far as I'm concerned."

After the situation was brought under control, the four tournament officials present in the arena viewed the videotape of the incident alone, and then met with both coaches to inform them of the suspensions.

"I've always believed that programs are a direct reflection of the philosophy of the people who run them," Battista said. "It's obvious that we have a different philosophy than Rhode Island."

Icer Cliff Graziano was suspended for four games, and both Mark Cervellero and Eddie Kmit were banned for two games. Hughes was given a four-game suspension and teammates Rob Mencunas, Garret Bodington, Mike Navoian were each suspended for two games.

"No. 4, Mencunas, came up from behind me and ripped my helmet off," Kmit said. "That kid hit me three times from behind, so finally I just turned around and popped him. I don't know what the point of what they were doing was. This was the biggest low-class maneuver I've ever seen."

This was not the first time a Rhode Island player has attacked an Icer. Last season, former Icer Ross Cowan was jumped by two Ram players as he participated in pre-game warmups. But last season's incident definitely was not as serious as Friday's.

"The games with Rhode Island are always very physical, and we won every time," Cowan said. "They let their season ride on their game with us, and so they always are very intense when they play us."