Panthers head coach Paul Maurice ejected from fight-filled game against Lightning
Thursday marked this season’s final installment of the “Battle of Florida” between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, and the two teams made sure it was a memorable one.
In the third period, with the Lightning leading 4-0, multiple fights broke out at center ice. The main event was Panthers superstar/superpest Matthew Tkachuk against Lightning forward Brandon Hagel in a rematch of their brawl from last year’s round-robin game between Canada and the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off. A couple more minor scuffles, including Tampa Bay’s J.J. Moser against Florida’s Anton Forsling, and Florida’s Donovan Sebrango against Tampa Bay’s Darren Raddysh, occurred simultaneously around the Tkachuk-Hagel bout.
MULTIPLE FIGHTS ERUPT IN THE BATTLE OF FLORIDA, INCLUDING HAGEL VS TKACHUK 😳🥊
After all the chaos subsided and the hilariously long list of penalties had been handed out, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice got ejected from the game. It’s not entirely clear what caused the ejection, but Maurice was probably giving the referees an earful after the Lightning were awarded a power play following the brawl.
The fisticuffs started after Tkachuk snuck up on Tampa Bay star Nikita Kucherov, giving him a cheap shot from behind when Kucherov wasn’t anywhere near the puck. That drew the ire of the other Lightning players on the ice, and eventually the mayhem erupted.
How the brawl started ⬇️
Adding injury to the rough night for Florida, Panthers goaltender Daniil Tarasov left the game in the third period in some apparent discomfort.
Tampa Bay wound up winning the game 6-1, giving them 78 points through 55 games and extending their lead in the Atlantic Division to six points over the second-placed Montreal Canadiens.
With the loss, Florida fell to the bottom of the Atlantic Division after the Ottawa Senators won 2-1 over the Philadelphia Flyers in a shootout on Thursday. With 61 points through 57 games, the Panthers are eight points back of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They’ll have to hit the ground running following the NHL’s Olympic break to make the playoffs and try to win their third straight Stanley Cup.