Evidence for
The 268 Penalty Minutes Behind Boston University–Maine’s Record Brawl

Companion notes

What the Public Record Establishes About the 2004 Boston University–Maine Brawl

The surviving material supports the game result, the 268-minute record, the end-of-game brawl, and the ensuing discussion of discipline and safety. It is less complete on individual conduct, formal sanctions, and the administrative process that followed.

The Established Sequence

The Boston University–Maine rivalry reference identifies the January 24, 2004 men’s hockey game and its 1–0 Boston University result. The University of Maine’s 2019–20 media guide preserves the 268-minute figure as the record for penalty minutes in a single men’s college hockey game. Together, those references support the core chronology: the Terriers won, a brawl followed at the end of the game, and the resulting penalties produced the record total. [S1], [S5]

The Record and Its Meaning

The 268 minutes should not be treated as a precise transcript of the confrontation. It is an official statistical total, not a reconstruction of every movement, exchange, or decision on the ice. The rivalry reference and additional hockey coverage connect the majority of those minutes to the end-of-game brawl. That supports the claim that the confrontation, rather than routine penalties accumulated earlier, drove the record. The public material does not identify the exact share attributable to each player. [S1], [S4], [S5]

Rivalry as Context

The rivalry is supported as context, not as a complete causal explanation. Coverage presents Boston University and Maine as long-standing opponents whose meetings carried unusual competitive weight. The 2004 confrontation therefore became symbolically important: it represented the tension associated with the matchup in a particularly visible form. That interpretation does not establish that rivalry history alone caused the brawl, and the sources do not provide a verified psychological profile of the players involved. [S1], [S2], [S4]

Institutional Response

The public account places disciplinary action and player safety among the subjects discussed after the brawl. Those discussions included the teams and their institutions and addressed sportsmanship in college hockey. The available sources do not provide a complete disciplinary docket, a consolidated list of sanctions, or the precise internal procedures used by Boston University, Maine, or the governing bodies. Claims about specific punishments, policy changes, or formal findings should therefore not be added without those records. [S1], [S2]

Limits of the Surviving Material

The source base is uneven. One reference is a Wikipedia entry, one is a university media guide, and the remaining relevant accounts are secondary sports or hockey coverage. The supplied material does not include game sheets, referee reports, contemporaneous administrative correspondence, player statements, medical records, or a formal inquiry docket. A separate source concerns another college rivalry and does not substantiate this incident. The defensible conclusion is consequently limited but clear: the game ended 1–0, the post-game brawl generated most of 268 penalty minutes, and the episode prompted discussion of discipline and safety. Individual motives and conduct remain unresolved. [S1], [S2], [S3], [S4], [S5]

Source key

The associated evidence packet contains visible source URLs, source roles and the complete claim ledger.