The Mars hockey team is facing Hampton for the Penguins Cup Class A championship Sunday night at the Consol Energy Center.

This game — and the other two Penguins Cup title games that night — should be the crowning jewel for the PIHL.

In a way, they are. These players get a chance to compete in a new NHL arena, an opportunity most hockey players never receive.

But in another way, the Mars-Hampton game showcases a black eye.

Hampton is the No. 6 seed and never has gotten past the quarterfinal round before. The Talbots are the Cinderella story of the PIHL postseason thus far.

Yet the Talbots will be taking on Mars without their head coach or their No. 2 scorer.

Coach Brad Lloyd and Ian Wood, who scored two goals in Hampton’s 6-2 win over top-seeded Kittanning in the semifinals, are suspended for this game because of a brawl that occurred with 2:20 left in the Kittanning contest.

Wood received a four-game suspension because he received two fighting majors and four game misconducts during the scuffle. Lloyd has to sit out because his team took a number of penalties.

“Basically, we didn’t do anything. ... Typical PIHL,” Lloyd said of the suspensions.

Actually, it’s typical hockey.

It’s not, really, but that’s the perception.

The third period of that Hampton-Kittanning featured 33 penalties. There were 182 penalty minutes doled out in that final 2:20 alone.

And this is a tournament semifinal?

Give me a break.

No other high school sport could have such an incident affect a championship game the way that one has.

Two years ago, Mars was involved in a brawl in Johnstown that left the Planets with so many suspended players that they had to play Deer Lakes days later with only six skaters.

NHL hockey brawls are disheartening to watch and are the biggest reason why pro hockey never will be accepted as a mainstream sport.

High school hockey brawls are inexcusable.

Maybe these guys were watching the New York Islanders-Penguins debacle on Long Island a few weeks back, when the Islanders were more interested in retribution from a previous game than actually playing a game.

They took cheap shot after cheap shot in the pathetic display that destroyed what was supposed to be a professional sporting event.

If these high school players took their cue from them, they need better role models — and shame on the NHL.

What caused that Hampton-Kittanning brawl is unclear. What is clear is that it never should have happened.

Kittanning’s coach is on record as saying no Hampton players — or their coach — deserved suspension for this championship game.

Mars is looking for its third consecutive Penguins Cup.

Hockey is still looking for respect.