The Tkachuk brothers, Brady and Matthew, play for the Ottawa Senators and the Florida Panthers, which adds some drama between the teams.
But a matchup between the two teams still doesn’t scream rivalry. But Tuesday’s game was testy, and all hell broke loose after Brady Tkachuk, one of the players with the hottest tempers in the league, had goalie Sergei Bobrovsky absolutely furious.
The Florida Panthers is one of the hottest teams in the league right now, and Sergei Bobrovsky has been a key factor in making it happen.
Against the Senators, he saved the Panthers in the game’s first 40 minutes, making 20 saves, including six high-danger shots.
But early in the third period, Bobrovsky found himself in the spotlight for a completely different reason than for making saves, as he went after Brady Tkachuk.
Tkachuk always plays with grit, trying to get under his opponent’s skin, but it’s not often he has goalies coming after him.
But after Tkachuk went after a loose puck that Bobrovsky had covered in the crease, chaos erupted as the goalie left his goal crease, going after Brady Tkachuk and hitting him in the face with his goalie gloves.
Tkachuk is not one to back down from a fight, and he didn’t care it was a goalie coming at him. He started firing punches back, even knocking Bobrovsky’s helmet off.
Neither Bobrovsky nor Tkachuk were given penalties on the play, which happened while the Panthers were up 2-1 in the game.
Not long after that, the Senators tied the game 2-2, but the Panthers got the last laugh as they won it in OT.
