A shocking tale of rudeness and aggression has put a damper on some of Montreal's recent hockey jubilation, as a Senators' fan reported that she was assaulted and abused while attending Game Two of the Montreal-Ottawa playoff series at the Bell Centre Friday.

Senator fan Katie Kerrick wrote on her Facebook page that she was terrorized throughout the game, as a man sitting nearby hit her repeatedly in the head with a towel, while another later doused her with beer.

She wrote on her widely-shared Facebook post that she was prepared for some “good natured chirping from Habs fans,” but instead was “sworn at and called many derogatory names” during the whole game.

Kerrick said that the man sitting behind her kept hitting her with a towel on the head and refused to stop. Her complaint to security proved futile and only led the man and his friend to shove her. Another Habs fan later hit her with a towel while others laughed and cheered, she recounts.

“When the Sens lost, the same man who had earlier pushed me leaned over his friends to throw his entire beer on my sister and I,” she wrote.

The Canadiens responded by apologizing on Twitter and asked Kerrick to contact them Saturday. 

Kerrick was unavailable for comment but her father told CTV Montreal in a telephone interview that Katie would likely turn down a spate of offers of free seats made by sympathetic Canadiens' fans. Her father said that he believed Katie would not be comfortable returning to watch a game in Montreal again.

Mayor Denis Coderre weighed in on the incident during a press conference Sunday in Montreal. 

“If it happened it’s regrettable. I didn’t see any incident report. I think the word respect is in order. I don’t know what happened but clearly we have a great reputation of being respectful and I’m sure everybody will act accordingly,” said Coderre.

Kerrick wrote that she plans to attend the game in Kanata Sunday evening. “I'm just going to cheer for the Senators even harder,” she wrote.

The negative experience was apparently not shared by all Senators' fans who attended the game in Montreal Friday. One described the Canadiens' fan as very friendly, according to a post on an online discussion forum.

"I just wanted to say thanks to the majority of Habs fans there at the Bell Centre last night for being super friendly and welcoming. Obviously we expected to encounter the standard group of obnoxious fans (present in every arena), but a lot of you guys took the time to make us part of the excitement," he wrote.

 

kk1