http://www.infoplease.com/spot/hockeyfighting1.html
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...25/ai_72050123
From Wikipedia........."no one has ever been killed on the ice in a hockey fight....when fighting is suppressed, players are more likely to engage in "stick work" (i.e., the use of the stick as a weapon), which is arguably far more dangerous to players than fighting. Fighting is also an important means of protecting a star player who is being brutalized by an opponent........... fighting in ice hockey led to Rodney Dangerfield's joke "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out".