Everyone loves a goalie fight — and it might be even better outdoors.
In front of a packed Raymond James Stadium, the home of the Buccaneers, Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman and Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy dropped the gloves during Sunday night’s NHL Stadium Series game in Tampa.
The fight began with 8:59 left in the second period, after Brandon Hagel took one too many pokes at the puck after the whistle — leading to a pair of Bruins players giving him a shove and then Swayman trying to rough him up a bit.
After the refs attempted to cool things down, Swayman noticed Vasilevskiy making his way from the Lightning net toward the action at the other end of the ice, and the two goaltenders squared up.
The fight didn’t last long as Swayman never got his skates under him and Vasilevskiy quickly got the upper hand in the fight, landing a few punches on the Bruins goaltender.
According to HockeyFights.com, a site that tracks hockey players’ fight records, Sunday’s tilt was the first time either Swayman or Vasilevskiy had gotten into a fight.
Neither seemed to hold a grudge as the two smiled and laughed as they shook hands after the game.
The scrap was the first goalie fight in an outdoor NHL game.
The Lightning defeated the Bruins 6-5 in the shootout after erasing a 5-1 hole that Tampa found itself in midway through the second period.
At the time of the fight, the Lightning had trailed 5-2 and a little more than four minutes later, defenseman Darren Raddysh scored to cut the Boston lead to two.
Nick Paul and Nikita Kucherov scored to eventually even the score, and Jake Guentzel scored the only goal in the shootout for the win.
A crowd of more than 64,000 fans was in attendance and they witnessed the largest comeback in an outdoor NHL game; the four-goal rally was the biggest in Lightning franchise history.
Swayman and Vasilevskiy’s fight was the second goalie fight in the NHL in less than a month after another
Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic fought in a game between the two teams back on Jan. 19.