Edmonton's Conklin and Atlanta's Nurminen fight

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) Edmonton Oilers goalie Ty Conklin looked over and saw teammate Mike Bishai trading punches with Serge Aubin from the Atlanta Thrashers' bench.

He wanted to watch, but with Thrashers netminder Pasi Nurminen ready to go, Conklin had his own business to take care of.

Conklin and Nurminen brawled at center ice to cap a wild brawl late in Edmonton's 5-1 victory the Thrashers on Wednesday night.

The melee resulted in 12 fighting majors, 10 game misconducts and two minors for 164 penalty minutes.

"It looked like a pretty normal game going into the third period, and then a number of bizarre circumstances created what ended up being great entertainment," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said.

With the Oilers up 4-1 at 18:11 of the third period, all five Oilers and Thrashers skaters paired up in the neutral zone, with the goalies joining soon after.

The brawl turned bizarre when Aubin threw Bishai into the Thrashers' bench. Once Bishai regained his footing, the two continued to trade punches, with Bishai standing in the Atlanta bench and Aubin on the ice.

"We just started wrestling around and I felt a little tug on the back of my jersey," said Bishai, playing just his fifth NHL game. "I don't know if one of their other guys pulled me in or something, but I ended up head over heels in their bench. I tried to get up as quick as I could. ...

"We just decided to keep her going."

The Thrashers on the bench looked on, unsure of what to do.

"He was doing pretty good for himself, too," said Conklin. "I was surprised. I look over, and there's a blue jersey in their bunch throwing punches. I kind of wanted to stay out of it and watch."

Instead, he dropped the gloves with Nurminen, with Conklin getting the better of his counterpart.

"It's always fun," said Nurminen. "Just give a couple punches, take a couple punches, still alive."

Both were ejected and Atlanta had to finish the game without a goalie. Starter Byron Dafoe injured his groin earlier in the game and left after the first period.

"It looked like everybody was going, so I didn't think that far," said Nurminen.

Conklin said he didn't know Atlanta was out of goalies.

"I didn't even think about it until I came in the locker room," he said. "It didn't even cross my mind, to be honest with you.

"I wouldn't have skated out there if he didn't want to. He was willing. As you could see, it's not like I was picking on him. It's not like I'm very good at it."

Aubin, Nurminen, Francis Lessard, Andy Sutton, Ivan Majesky and Jeff Cowan for Atlanta, and Bishai, Conklin, Eric Brewer, Jason Smith, Jason Chimera and Georges Laraque for the Oilers each received fighting majors.

All but Cowan and Chimera also received game misconducts. The goaltenders also got minors for leaving the crease.

"They were very frustrated and they just showed it on the ice," said Laraque. "It's nice to see that nobody shied away from the rough stuff and everybody on the ice did their thing.

"Everybody leaves the building happy."