Tampa Bay Lightning Highlights: Adam Erne Throws Down With Andreas Athanasiou (Video)

Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Adam Erne dropped the gloves with Detroit Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou late in the first period of play.

The Tampa Bay Lightning was riding high coming into tonight’s contest against the Detroit Red Wings. Just 24 hours ago, the Lightning exacted some much-needed vengeance against the Boston Bruins with a 6-3 victory over the Bruins at the TD Garden in Boston.

Now, the Lightning had to lace up their skates and do it all over again as they take on yet another Divisional opponent. As has been the case over the last month or so, every single point is important; however, this is especially true when it comes to facing down Divisional opponents.

Needless to say, given all their rather heated encounters in the past, there is absolutely no love lost between these two teams. In other words, it wouldn’t take much more than a good shove or an ever-so-slight incidental contact to get things going between these two Atlantic Division teams.

Tampa Bay Lightning
Tampa Bay Lightning /

Tampa Bay Lightning

So…essentially no one here in the Bolts Nation was surprised when things escalated to a whole new level in the final minutes of the first period. It all started in the neutral zone as some pushing and shoving during the play led to quite the scuffle. A couple of cheap cross-checks from behind from Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader to Lightning forward Joel Vermin would cause a bit of a dust-up.

Surprisingly enough, this isn’t where the attention of everyone in attendance at Joe Louis Arena was focused. The packed house at the Joe was watching as Lightning forward Adam Erne threw down with Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou.

Now, if you were one of the people sitting in the stands, there is a good chance you believe Athanasiou had the upper hand in this particular encounter. Fortunately for Lightning fans, you would be largely incorrect. From a certain angle, it looked like Athanasiou landed quite a few hard hits on Erne; especially after his helmet came off. However, upon further inspection, Erne was able to pull his head out of harm’s way.

At one point, Athanasiou seemed to forget which sport he plays as he tried to use an MMA takedown technique to get Erne off balance. Thankfully, Erne’s size made this much more difficult than one would initially assume and Athanasiou elected to return to traditional fighting techniques.

On the flip side, Adam Erne was able to make good use of his size as he landed shot after hard shot to both Athanasiou’s head and body. Ironically enough, after the referees broke these two brawlers up, there was quite a bit of sportsmanship shown.

As he prepared to make his way down the tunnel to the locker room, Adam Erne gave Andreas Athanasiou a good pat and seemingly uttered the words “Good fight, man.” Who says you can’t be gentlemanly in the face of adversity. This reminds us a lot of WWE Cruiserweight “Gentleman” Jack Gallagher. We swear, if Erne’s stick is named William, we’re done. Just done.

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In any case, there is still a lot of hockey to be played between these two Atlantic Division rivals. This wasn’t the first time fists were thrown tonight, and it certainly won’t be the last. Here’s hoping the Lightning can utilize this momentum and kick off the second period with the same fire they ended the first.