In the third period the Sens took a 4-1 lead after Kyle Turris scored his first of the postseason. On the ensuing faceoff Ryan White and Zack Smith exchanged a shove, then White gave Smith a two-hander and everyone on the ice, outside of the goaltenders, paired off.

Jared Cowen grabbed White quickly. Smith wound up facing off against the much smaller, but always game Francis Bouillon. Rounding out the line brawl: Chris Neil took on Travis Moen, Chris Phillips went with Jarred Tinordi and Matt Kassian quickly had Colby Armstrong pinned to the ice. Kassian and Armstrong didn't necessarily deserve the majors everyone else received, but it's hard to blame the officiating crew for keeping it easy (on the scoresheet only) in this situation.

The Senators reflected the scoreboard in the fights, taking out Montreal decisively. Ottawa scored again just four seconds later, making the score 5-1.

Continue reading: Habs & Sens: The New Rivalry

As the NHL regular season comes to a close and teams start to prepare for the playoffs settling scores, risking momentum swings and fighting have predictably slowed down. However, that hasn't stopped some gloves from falling to the ice entirely in the past couple of days.

In last night's Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins game Jay Rosehill and Shawn Thornton found some time half-way through the second to throw down. The scrap started out sloppy, but once Rosehill got righted, thanks to Thornton giving him the chance to, the two threw with disregard for defense until they tired out and locked up. 

Continue reading: Winding Down

About midway through the first, with the Leafs up 2-0, Matt Carkner and Frazer McLaren met up behind the play and had a solid bout. Carkner was throwing with the left, and McLaren was lobbing massive right hands. After some exchanged bombs, Carkner's jersey comes up, and the two hit the ice.

On the ensuing faceoff, Eric Boulton and Colton Orr decide to one-up their teammates and have an all-out war. The action started fast and furious with both players exchanging huge right hands. After a brief lull to adjust, they got right back to landing right-handed haymakers flush on the other. At one point Orr lands well enough to send Boulton's helmet flying and Boulton just keeps going, landing his own right hand snapping Orr's head back.

Both players made gestures to the standing crowd, and each other, for the slugfest.

The Islanders would roar back in the first with three goals after the fights, adding two more before the Leafs added a late 5 on 3 goal to finish up the scoring 5-3, in favor of the Isles.

Continue reading: Leafs-Isles Heavyweight Double Dip

The Sens 6'5" defenseman Jared Cowen made his season debut for the Sens after being injured throughout the beginning of the shortened campaign and found the Canes a feisty team to comeback to action against.

Midway through the first Cowen laid a big open-ice hit on Jeff Skinner, knocking him out of the game. Chad LaRose stepped in for his teammate, notching his first FM in over two years.

Shortly after Cowen and Larose exchanged pleasantries Nicolas Blanchard and Zack Smith met up after a whistle and had a tactical, grappling fight.

Next up was Cowen again, this time with noted heavyweight Kevin Westgarth forcing the issue. Cowen did a good job of limiting Westgarth with his reach, and after a few punches was taken down to the ice.

Late in the second Chris Neil and Tim Gleason found some time to drop the mitts and go rock'em sock'em in a very solid, entertaining fight. Commenters on-site and on our social networks have called Neil out for some late punching.

Continue reading: Sens & Canes Get Nasty

The Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes had a rough first period with three fights coming in the first 20 minutes. Getting things started were heavyweights Shawn Thornton and Kevin Westgarth who engaged in a locked-out tactical match with few punches exchanged.

Towards the end of the first period Zdeno Chara and Jay Harrison emerged out of a scrum with the mitts off throwing wild right hands at each other before taking a tumble to the ice.

Less than a minute later Gregory Campbell and Nicolas Blanchard dropped the gloves off of a faceoff and had a heck of a dance. They entered the spin-cycle with each player winging rights, Blanchard doing a great job slipping underneath the bombs from Campbell and Campbell deflecting and slipping a lot of Blanchard's shots.

Continue reading: Saturday Co-Features