Stars struck: Stamkos, Matthews brawl during Maple Leafs' win

TAMPA, Fla. — A series of fights between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Toronto Maple Leafs broke out in the third period of Saturday night's Game 3. And the penalty sheet, after order was restored, resembled an NHL All-Star roster.

Lightning captain Steven Stamkos and Toronto star Auston Matthews, two players with multiple NHL awards and honors and a 60-goal season on each of their resumes, fought during the sequence, which delayed a critical game that Tampa Bay was leading, 3-2, at the time.

The Maple Leafs tied it at the end of regulation, and won, 4-3, in overtime to take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference First Round series.

The celebration came long after a unique sequence of brawls more fit for a regular-season game. Play was interrupted for several minutes while officials sorted through a wild sequence that began with Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly pushing Tampa Bay's Brayden Point into the boards as the two battled for a loose puck.

The hit touched off several skirmishes, one of them involving Stamkos and Matthews. The two were sent to the penalty box for fighting, but they weren't the only stars who were flagged for their actions. Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov, himself a multiple NHL All-Star as well as a Hart Trophy winner as league MVP, and O'Reilly, a 2019 Stanley Cup champion with the St. Louis Blues, were also penalized.

«The fight, itself, that's a classic example of a veteran championship team like Tampa Bay manipulating the officials and taking advantage of a situation, right,» Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe asked in his postgame news conference.

Rielly was initially assessed a five-minute penalty for boarding, but following a review, the officials ruled there was no penalty for the shove on Point, who