RAPID CITY - It's a classic line from the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield: "Once I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out."

The jersey-over-the-head brawls in pro hockey may appear to be nothing more than spontaneous combustion of tempers, but more times than not when the gloves come off, there is a method to the madness.

"Sometimes (a fight) is an inspiration boost if your team's not playing well," said Rapid City Rush defenseman and player-assistant coach Mark DeSantis. "Sometimes it's just two guys who happen to collide and they look at each other and it just happens."

"It can happen if someone takes a cheap shot on one of your better players, one of the goal-scorers, even on anybody else. You're out there to protect each other," said Rush forward Kyle Sheen. "Or you're down a couple of goals, especially playing at home. You get a fight going and the crowd gets excited and everybody just gets energized. You feed off the crowd and you feed off the fight. It can be a huge momentum swing for a lot of guys."

Indeed, fights break out among players that just flat don't like each other. That's how Sheen came home with a shiner under his left eye from last Saturday night's exhibition game against the Colorado Eagles.

Sheen squared off with defenseman Adam Knight in the third of four opening-period brouhahas with the Eagles.

"I've got a history against the guy I fought. I played against him in college," Sheen said. "I didn't like him and I can assume he didn't like me or the way I played."

Sheen took a lick at the outset, but he gave as good as he got.

"He got a good punch in right at the start. It was more luck where it hit, right in the eye," Sheen said. "I got him with a good punch at the end of it. It was a good fight. I'd call it a draw. The fans liked it. The guys on the team liked it."

Rush coach Joe Ferras said some teams will hit the ice with overt aggressiveness to set the early tone.

"They want to make sure that they let you know it's going to be a tough night and a tough place to play," Ferras said. "You've got to make sure that you've got guys out there going into tough rinks. You want to make sure that your players not only aren't going to be intimidated, they not going to be afraid to do what they need to do."

Sheen said players are going to want to show they won't be pushed around.

"If something happens and needs to be taken care of, it definitely will be," he said.

Romeo Vivit can attest to that.

Vivit's hockey experience dates back 20 years to the Midget AAA level in his native Chicago.

Now 38, the ice hockey manager of the Roosevelt Ice Arena in Rapid City skated with the Rush during training camp and played several minutes in Friday night's preseason contest against the Rocky Mountain Rage in Broomfield, Colo.

Vivit is just 5-foot-5 and 158 pounds, but a much larger teammate, 6-5, 210-pound Jozef Sladok, had his back.

"I got rocked pretty good and Sladok was right there to make sure that the guy was held accountable," Vivit said.

DeSantis, 36, said he got into more scraps "back in the day," but has learned to pick his battles over the course of his 16-year career.

"If we're leading 5-1 and they're going after our lead guy, then I think something's got to be done," he said. "It all depends on the situation. If it's a hard checking game, sometimes you've just got to suck it up, take his number, remember who he is and get him at a later time. If you know the other team's trying to get you off your game and coax you into a fight, I'm not going to waste my time. I think the team needs me more on the ice than in the penalty box."

Penalties in minutes, or PIM's is a statistical measure of a player's aggressiveness. A high number of PIM's and a relatively low number of points (goals added to assists) could mean a player has more of a defensive role.

Penalty minutes aside, Sheen said a good dust-up ramps his play to a different level, and he hopes that carries over to his teammates.

"The sooner I get into it, the better I play. It gets more adrenaline pumping through my body. You get more involved in the game," he said.

Ferras said a successful team's roster will include a healthy mix of finesse and feistiness.

"You're not going to win many games with 11 Wayne Gretzkys," he said. "You've got to have role-players. When someone runs into Chris Lipsett, there's the guy that steps up and makes sure that doesn't happen again," he said.

Sheen is just fine being a "motivator" as it were.

"If I can get a little bit of a spark here and there and get the team going, then so be it," he said.