Miller ban upheld

Miller will be out of action until mid-January. Keystone / Michele Limina

The Ice Hockey Association have turned down an appeal by Davos against an eight-match ban imposed on their forward Kevin Miller. The ban for violent behaviour is the longest in Swiss ice hockey history.

The affair centres on October’s match between Davos and Zurich Lions, in which Miller elbowed Lions forward Andrew McKim in the face. McKim suffered concussion and facial injuries and has not yet been able to resume training.

The Swiss league’s disciplinary judge, Heinz Tännler, issued the ban last month but Davos exercised their right to appeal and insisted on playing Miller in their subsequent matches.

Just four days after being ‘banned’, the 35-year-old American scored five goals in a single match, a feat which had not been achieved in Switzerland for seven years. With another five goals in the club’s next six games, Miller has helped lift Davos to third place in the current national standings.

But the club will now have to do without him until at least mid-January. On Monday the Ice Hockey Association’s appeals court said that the original ban handed down to Miller had been perfectly correct.

The court agreed with Tännler that Miller had deliberately struck McKim around the throat area. While Miller might not have known for certain that McKim could suffer a serious injury, the court said he must have been aware of the possibility.

swissinfo with agencies