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The Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins started the month of February with a goalie fight during their Stadium Series matchup at the home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In the second period, with the Lightning down three goals, Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman challenged Lightning star Andrei Vasilevskiy as both teams were breaking out into a scrum anyway. Both players threw down their gloves and their helmets and the bell rang.
Vasilevskiy got ahold of Swayman and threw a couple of shots with his left. Swayman went down to one knee and the referees broke up the skirmish.
The Lightning credited the goalie fight with helping them get back into the game as they came back to win 6-5 despite being down 5-2 when the fight occurred.
“He was throwing lefts. I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ I didn’t want to be the other guy,” Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov told reporters, via ESPN. “I was so happy. I was so fired up. I think the bench felt it. Everyone in the building felt it. Ever since that fight, the game was turned. Vasy had to do it, I guess. He had to wake us up.”
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Kucherov added, “I knew he was going to beat the wheels off of Swayman right away. We call him ‘White Tyson’ now.”
Brandon Hagel echoed Kucherov’s words, saying the fight was a “big turning point in the game.”
It was the first goalie fight in outdoor game history, which occurred in front of an announced crowd of 64,617 at Raymond James Stadium. Kucherov tied the game in the third period.
The Lightning won the game in a penalty shootout thanks to goals from Kucherov, Gage Goncalves and Jake Guentzel.
Tampa Bay’s win was the largest comeback victory in franchise history and the largest in an NHL outdoor game. The Lightning moved to 35-14-4 and the Bruins fell to 32-20-4.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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