Tampa Bay Lightning center Brian Boyle unleashed his inner beast mode on Dallas Stars left wing Antoine Roussel last night at the Amalie Arena.
The Tampa Bay Lightning came into last night’s game looking to find some consistency in their game and come out on top with only two games left in the regular season. What they didn’t expect is the chippy game that almost turned into a brawl at one point.
As the old story goes, it only takes a spark to start a furious blaze. This is exactly how the story played out at the Amalie Arena as the Tampa Bay Lightning took on the Dallas Stars in what turned out to be one heck of a hard-hitting and fist-flying game.
The whole thing started just past the halfway point in the first period. The Tampa Bay Lightning led the Stars 1-0 in what was shaping up to be a pretty interesting game. The Lightning were already down one man as Nikita Kucherov had already been escorted off the ice after suffering a lower body injury, and as you can imagine they were not looking to risk losing anyone else.
Down in the corner, Dallas Stars left wing Antoine Roussel seemed to unnecessarily target Lightning center Jonathan Marchessault. Unfortunately for the Stars, this was the breaking point in the matter and Lightning center Brian Boyle had about enough of the unnecessary pushing and shoving.
After Roussel came at Marchessault, Boyle stepped in to defend his teammate. What happened when he stepped to Roussel? Well, Roussel decided to push Boyle. As you can imagine, Boyle didn’t take too kindly to this. While he may have hesitated for a moment before dropping the gloves, it wasn’t too long before Boyle brought out his fists of fury and took Roussel down to the ground.
This would not be the only time Boyle would mix it up with someone from the Dallas Stars in last night’s encounter. Around the 15:47 mark in the second period, Boyle would get tied up with Stars left wing Travis Moen. Both Boyle and Moen would receive 10 minute Misconduct penalties for their altercation.
Brian Boyle and the two aforementioned Stars players were not the only players to drop the gloves in last night’s hard-hitting encounter. If you ask us honestly, last night’s game was a lot more like “Fight Night in Tampa Bay” than it was your traditional hockey game. Mike Angelidis, and Luke Witkowski both found themselves in the penalty box during the encounter while Vernon Fiddler and Jamie Oleksiak went in for the Stars.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have one final game before the regular season kicks off at the Amalie Arena on October 8th. Tomorrow night, the Tampa Bay Lightning head to the BB&T Center in Sunrise to take on their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers. We don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to see what the Tampa Bay Lightning has in store for us next. Thankfully, there are only a few more hours left until we find out.
Next: Tampa Bay Lightning’s Goaltending Situation Still In Flux
More from Bolts by the Bay
- Tampa Bay Lightning: Maxim Groshev Stands Out at Rookie Showcase
- Tampa Bay Lightning Atlantic Division Preview: Boston Bruins
- Do the Tampa Bay Lightning provide Tyler Motte with career stability?
- Mikhail Sergachev hints a renewed vigor for the Tampa Bay Lightning
- Four training camp battles to watch with the Tampa Bay Lightning