Golden Knights Win In Game That Featured 10 Game Misconducts

It's in games like these where I wish post-game press conferences with officials existed.

The Golden Knights won this eventful game 4-3 in overtime with Alec Martinez scoring the OT winner. But my mind is still on something that happened earlier.

In the third period of a close game that would eventually go to overtime, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights got into a massive scrum that involved everyone on the ice, not named Andrei Vasilevskiy or Jonathan Quick. 

It started after Keegan Kolesar gave Pat Maroon an extra shove after the whistle. Maroon then turned around and popped Kolesar in the jaw, which bloodied Kolesar. Chaos then ensued as teammates came to the response of both sides.

Involved in the play were: Kolesar, Maroon, Corey Perry, Michael Eyssimont, Brett Howden, Teddy Blueger, Cale Fleury, Zach Whitecloud, Zach Bogosian, Nicolas Hague, and all four officials/linesmen. 

"At the end of the day, I think we found our emotional needle in this game. That scrum probably dragged us into it. Even though we lose key players I think a couple of those shifts really got us engaged," said head coach Bruce Cassidy.

Instead of taking the remainder of the night to review the same clip, the refs played it safe as every player involved was kicked out of the game with 7:44 remaining in regulation.

Here's the full sequence.

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The only penalty that resulted in a powerplay was the initial jab by Maroon, which was called two minutes for high-sticking. Every other penalty offset, and both head coach Jon Cooper and Bruce Cassidy were without five of their players for the rest of the game.

"A lot more ice time," William Karlsson joked. "It was the same for them but it was a special situation and one that you haven't been in for a long time. I think we were going on two lines there at the end. There was a lot of ice time. You just have to make sure you keep em (shifts) short and sweet."

This animosity had been heating up, as earlier in the game, a fight between Tanner Jeannot and Brayden McNabb occurred. It came after Jeannot rocked Jack Eichel with a big hit, and McNabb came to his teammates' defense.

Things naturally boiled over with guys like Maroon, Kolesar, Perry, Hague, Bogosian, and Howden on the ice. All are players who have tendencies to stir things up. The Golden Knights are just lucky they didn't have Robin Lehner in goal, or he would have joined in on the fun.

A total of 146 penalty minutes were called in this game, which is a far cry from the NHL record of 419. But 10 game misconduct has to be some sort of record, at least for the young Vegas Golden Knights franchise.

The Golden Knights managed to emerge with two points in Tampa Thursday. They will play the Carolina Hurricanes next on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.