Owner of ECHL's Jacksonville Icemen says mistake made when game misconduct announced for Jacob Panetta

Bob Ohrablo, the owner and President of the Jacksonville Icemen of the ECHL, insists referees and the announcer made a mistake when announcing the game misconduct penalty for Jacob Panetta following an incident with Jordan Subban. Ohrablo says announcing over the PA system that the penalty was for a "racial gesture" was wrong.

"There is no game misconduct for anything, for racial gestures or anything," Ohrablo told News4Jax. "It's the act that causes the game misconduct and then the player's not really guilty of that until the league rules. So that was a mistake by the referee and a mistake by our PA announcer."

Ohrablo added that when a player is thrown out of game, the league usually investigates before a ruling is made on what, exactly, the misconduct was.

The Icemen have since released Panetta and he's been suspended by the ECHL for the remainder of the season, a total of 38 games. According to Ohrablo, Panetta had the kind of contract that allowed him to move up to another level at any time but also allowed him to be released at any time for any reason. This is standard in the ECHL. These comments by Ohrablo were made before the suspension to Panetta was announced by the ECHL.

Panetta was accused of making monkey gestures at Subban during the game, something he denies. Panetta stated it was a "tough guy" gesture that he's done many times before. Since the night of the game, Subban has not commented on the incident, nor the suspension to Panetta.

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