What should have been a friendly post-game handshake at a high school hockey tournament in Cape Breton erupted into a full brawl that involved not just the players, but their coaches.

The incident happened Saturday at the tournament in Coxheath, N.S., following a game between the Riverview Redmen and Dalbrae Dragons.

It appears a couple of moments of unsportsmanlike behaviour at the end of the game carried over into the handshake at centre ice, and both players and coaches began throwing punches.

“We just kind of lost our temper and both teams got into it,” Redmen player Michael O’Reilly told CTV Atlantic.

O'Reilly said when his team's trainer tried to break up the fight up, one of the other team's coaches went after him, which spurred more players to join in.

After the fight was over, both teams were ejected from the Red Cup Showcase tournament.

While it's not altogether clear how the brawl started, observers said it was disturbing to see coaching staff join in.

“It’s bad enough when you have students getting involved, or players, but when you have an adult involved with the kids, that’s pretty drastic,” said Brent Desveaux, junior hockey scout who was at the game.

Desveaux said emotions often run high in tournaments and he says the players probably shouldn’t have been made to shake hands after the game.

“All these kids are feeding off this emotion and kids are kids, right? The handshake happens like, two to three minutes after the game, and you can’t go from an emotional high to a low to being settled down,” he said.

Desveaux said the Red Cup is one of the most prestigious tournaments in the Maritimes and this incident taints its good name.

An official with the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation said the organization is investigating the incident, as are Red Cup Tournament organizers.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Sarah Ritchie