Lightning and Caps brawl, will meet again Sunday

WASHINGTON — While officials reviewed Capitals forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel‘s check to the head of Lightning defenseman Cal Foote, Tampa Bay’s Patrick Maroon dropped the gloves with Washington’s Garnet Hathaway during the lengthy stoppage. This was only the beginning of the fisticuffs between these teams as tensions rose over Friday night.

“I don’t know about that but probably,” Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said after his team lost 5-1. “Two teams who want to win hockey games. It was a terrible hit and set the tone for the remainder of the game. ”

Aube-Kubel was ejected and assessed a match penalty, which is an automatic suspension pending review by the NHL’s department of player safety. He would be suspended for at least the second half the home-and–home series. If he was suspended, he would miss the entire series. ”

The Lightning were not happy with Aubel Kubel’s hit in the second period, which knocked Foote out. Maroon didn’t wait for the next shift to voice his feelings.

“That is what Patty does” Hedman stated. He stands up for his teammates. He won’t take no for an answer. This energized the bench. A few other players were involved in this initial scrum. They exchanged pushes and shoves throughout the fight until Maroon and Hathaway were separated. Nick Paul hopped off the bench for a second before being urged back by Lightning teammates to avoid what would have been an automatic 10-game suspension.

The Capitals killed off all five minutes, and Sonny Milano — who was serving Aubel-Kubel’s penalty — scored coming out of the box on a breakaway 7 seconds after the Lightning power play expired.

A few Washington goals later, a line brawl erupted with 5: 40 left in the third with Tampa Bay’s Corey Perry fighting Anthony Mantha and teammate Vladislav Namestnikov dropping the gloves with Washington’s Erik Gustafsson. With some roughing mixed in, the incident added up to 26 penalty minutes and finished with Mantha’s second career Gordie Howe hat trick — a goal, an assist and a fight.

Expect another chippy game 48 hours later.

” I think it’s going be the same,’ said Kevin McCarthy who coached the Capitals during Peter Laviolette’s absence. “When you play a team back-to-back, there’s always something that carries from the previous game. We expect the same from both teams, especially after tonight’s game. It was physical on both ends and we expect it to continue. ”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.