A surreal scene occurred during the game between the Ottawa Senators and the Florida Panthers when so many players were ejected from the game that both benches looked empty.
With just over seven minutes left in the third period, the referees had enough and sent the ten skaters to the shower. Hostilities began when Brady Tkachuk made contact with Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
• Also read: WATCH: A robbery on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen with his stick
• Also read: Connor McDavid started to collect a lot of points again
A near-total brawl ensued, with every Florida player trying to attack the Senators captain. In total, the referees awarded a total of 167 penalty minutes in this game, which ended with a score of 5-0 in favor of the Panthers.
When Brady was busy, so was Matthew Tkachuk. The two brothers threw a few barbs at each other, but didn’t drop their gloves. The Panthers forward seemed to annoy all of his opponents, including Zack MacEwen, Jake Sanderson and Travis Hamonic.
It was a very long evening for the home team fans at the Canadian Tire Centre. They booed the representatives of the Canadian capital, who only shot 20 times at the opposing net.
Sam Reinhart took advantage of a silly mistake by goalkeeper Joonas Korpisalo and scored his second goal of the game. Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe and Eetu Luostarinen also hit the target.
Rangers with no answers
In New York, the Rangers, who have usually been very solid this season, were not used in the right hand against the very convincing Buffalo Sabers, who won 5-1.
The guests sent no less than 39 pucks onto Igor Shesterkin’s cage. Alex Tuch beat him twice, with Kyle Okposo and JJ Peterka picking up the Sabres’ other wins at the Russian’s expense. Casey Mittelstadt, in turn, shot into the empty net, capping a great three-point night.
At the other end of the ice, the Rangers faced Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who spectacularly frustrated Jimmy Vesey with his stick. The Finn kept his team in the lead with 25 saves. It was only Mika Zibanejad who made the breakthrough in the third period.
The Blueshirts lost the services of forward Kaapo Kakko early in the game. The young man fell while fighting for the puck with Erik Johnson. His leg twisted at a painful angle as he hit ice and tape.
Kakko was able to get off the ice with help, but didn’t put any weight on his leg.
Three in a row
As far as upsets go, the Blue Jackets were able to pull off a few upsets on the Boston Bruins, defeating them 5-2 in Columbus.
The numerous Russian players from the local favorite put on a show. Dmitry Voronkov, Ivan Provorov, Yegor Chinakhov and Kirill Marchenko scored the Jackets’ first four goals, all before the Bruins’ slightest response.
Matthew Poitras and John Beecher eventually closed the gap, but the damage was done. Boston suffered a third straight loss for the first time this season. They also lost their fourth duel in five games.
- Listen to Jean-François Baril’s sports report on QUB radio :
The Flames win in the last minute
In Calgary, MacKenzie Weegar played the hero with five seconds left in overtime, giving the Flames a 2-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Weegar beat goalie Adin Hill with a wrist shot that the goalie would probably like to see again.
AJ Greer scored the Flames’ other goal.
William Karlsson was the Knights’ lone scorer.