Police, Flyers fans hunt attackers of N.Y. fan, war vet Neal Auricchio

By Greg Wyshynski

There wasn't a fight in the 2012 NHL Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia; and even though there were over 45,000 New York and Philadelphia sports fans crammed into the stadium for a rivalry game, there were no significant incidents in the stands, either.

But at 7:15 p.m. at the iconic Geno's Steaks located at 1200 South 9th St., violence broke out between hockey fans. Three unknown males wearing Philadelphia Flyers jerseys paid a homeless man to spray two New York Rangers fans with some kind of cleaning substance, according to MyFoxPhilly.com. After an altercation, they then began sucker-punching them and pummeling them as they lay on the ground.

According to NBC's New York affiliate, one of the injured Rangers fans was an off-duty New Jersey police officer and former Marine who was awarded a Purple Heart in Iraq.

From NBC New York:

Neal Auricchio, 30, has worn the uniforms of the Marine Corps and the Woodbridge Police Department, but it appeared to be his Rangers hockey jersey that made him a target of the attack earlier this week.

"He got banged up pretty badly," his father Neal Auricchio Sr., told NBC New York Wednesday. "Stitches in the one eye, and the other eye is pretty puffed up. He went for a CAT scan today, and we're waiting for the results on that."

The incident caused shock and outrage among sports fan. It caused embarrassment for Flyers fans who have spent years battling the stereotypes associated with Philadelphia fans, from fights in the stands to batteries thrown at players.

One Flyers blog had seen enough, and its sleuthing may help police crack this case.

Travis Hughes of Broad Street Hockey on SB Nation posted the original, graphic video on Tuesday afternoon on a post whose "ultimate goal of getting these idiots thrown in jail," saying: "We say so often that we don't deserve our reputation as awful monsters moonlighting as sports fans, but when this sort of thing happens, it completely undermines everything we say on the subject. It's up to us to police this stuff, then."