Victoria Royals forward Kody McDonald suspended indefinitely for match penalty

CALGARY — Victoria Royals forward Kody McDonald may have played his last game in the Western Hockey League.

The WHL announced on Thursday that it has suspended the 20-year-old McDonald indefinitely for an altercation in a playoff game against the Kamloops Blazers a day earlier.

McDonald was given a five-minute match penalty for attempting to injure a player and was ejected at 7:58 of the third period in Game 4 of their best-of-seven first-round series on Wednesday.

The Lethbridge, Alta., native appeared to swing his stick at least three times at Blazers forward Zane Franklin as the two stood on their team benches, which are on the same side of the rink and only separated by a pane of glass. Franklin was handed an unsportsmanlike conduct minor on the play.

The Blazers went on to take Game 4, 6-3, to even the series at two games each.

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WHL commissioner Ron Robison said in a statement that the league “takes incidents of this nature very seriously,” and that “actions of this kind are unacceptable to the WHL.” The statement added that the league would have no further comment until doing a further investigation into the incident. 

Game 5 of the series is Saturday in Victoria.

McDonald is in his fifth and final season of major junior. His rookie campaign was with the Prince George Cougars in 2014-15 and he started this season with the Prince Albert Raiders before being traded to the Royals on Jan. 3.

He produced 20 goals and 42 points in 58 games in 2018-19 split between Prince Albert and Victoria.

The Canadian Press