Lightning’s Brandon Hagel calls for rivalries to return to NHL after chippy Panthers game

The “Battle of Florida” flared up again Thursday night, with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers producing a runaway score and a penalty-filled night. Tampa Bay walked away with a 6-1 win, but the chaos in the third period, featuring Tampa Bay winger Brandon Hagel, stole the spotlight.

Tensions peaked early in the third period after Florida defenseman Niko Mikkola knocked Nikita Kucherov to the ice. Moments later, a full-scale line brawl broke out involving six Lightning skaters — JJ Moser, Jake Guentzel, Darren Raddysh, Yanni Gourde, Hagel, and Kucherov, and five Panthers players — Donovan Sebrango, Gustav Forsling, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, and Matthew Tkachuk. Officials handed out 13 penalties on the sequence, including 10-minute misconducts to Guentzel and Kucherov, while the rest were minor penalties.

After the game, Hagel welcomed the intensity, according to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski.

“This is so good for the game,” he said. “If you look back in the day, the rivalries were insane. It needs to get back into the game. It’s good for the players, shows a lot about the character of guys on your team. They’re fun. They’re playoff games.”

The 27-year-old’s comments followed a performance that included a goal at 2:08 of the first period and five penalty minutes. Hagel now has 27 goals and 54 points in 50 games this season, along with a plus-29 rating.

The disorder intensified later in the period when Tkachuk elbowed Kucherov from behind away from the puck with Florida behind 4-0. Hagel immediately responded by dropping the gloves with Tkachuk, landing several punches before both fell to the ice. Additional altercations followed, including Forsling and Moser, and a separate clash between Sebrango and Raddysh.

By the end of the melee, Forsling, Moser, Bennett, Verhaeghe, Sebrango, Guentzel, Kucherov, Gourde, and Raddysh all received 10-minute misconducts. Panthers head coach Paul Maurice was also ejected at 4:06 of the third period and replaced on the bench by assistant coach Jamie Kompon.

Between 114 and 124 penalty minutes came just from the third-period chaos, adding up to 147 overall. Earlier this season, a preseason meeting between the same teams produced a whopping 322 combined PIMs.

On the ice, Tampa Bay clearly had the upper hand from start to finish. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots, while six different Lightning players scored. The win improved Tampa Bay to 37-14-4 and extended their recent run to 19-1-1 over 21 games, keeping them at the top of the Eastern Conference. Florida, meanwhile, fell to 29-25-3 and has lost five of its last six games.

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