Matthew Tkachuk is no stranger to fighting on the main stage.
In arguably the biggest hockey game in years, Tkachuk, as a member of Team USA in the 4 Nations Face-Off, dropped the gloves against Team Canada right at the opening faceoff.
Late Monday night, he found himself in yet another brouhaha, this one involving just about everyone on the ice for his Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers, both of which have other players involved in those USA-Canada fights.
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As Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final got out of hand (the Panthers walloped Edmonton, 6-1, to take a 2-1 series lead), things got chippy, and the Panthers knew it would likely get worse.
Tkachuk, who has found himself in similar situations before, saw the writing on the wall and wanted his team prepared.
"We talked about it in the third. If you have to take a punch in the face, take a punch in the face. If you have to take a cross-check, take a cross-check. Spear, slash in the face, whatever the case is, you’ve got to take it," Tkachuk said after the contest.
At one point, Tkachuk took a share of punches to the face from Jake Walman - all while he was being held by John Klinberg.
The game was already 5-1 in favor of Florida when things were getting more aggressive on the ice. It reached a different level when Edmonton forward Trent Federic started to pick on Sam Bennett (who fought Tkachuk's brother in that 4 Nations game) to the point where he cross-checked him down to the ice, and Bennett retaliated with some punches as he got on top of Federic.
That initial fight led every player on the ice to find a partner to duel with, and the referees simply let the brawl play itself out. The Oilers’ Darnell Nurse and the Panthers’ Jonah Gadjovich clutched each other’s sweaters and were throwing haymakers, while Florida’s A.J. Greer dueled with Edmonton’s Mattias Ekholm.
After the fights fizzled out, Nurse, Godjovich, Bennett, Federic, Greer and Ekholm were all called for game misconducts and sent off the ice for the remainder of the game.
However, with nearly half of the third period still to play, the tension between these two teams vying for the Lord Stanley’s Cup did not stop. It mainly came from the Oilers, as Evander Kane was sent off the ice for the night after slashing Carter Verhaeghe in the face while he was down on the ice.
More penalties would be had as the clock kept ticking down, and at that point, both teams were just hoping no one would get hurt with much of this series left to play. Even at the final buzzer, Oilers star Corey Perry started jousting with multiple Panthers players, as fans started throwing debris onto the ice.
It was truly a statement win for the reigning champs, who have all types of momentum heading into Game 4 on Thursday night.
Fox News' Scott Thompson contributed to this report.
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