Fight breaks out during head shot review in Lightning vs. Capitals' game
WASHINGTON -- The Washington Capitals beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 on Friday night in a game full of boiling tensions and a couple of fights.
The Capitals won despite playing almost two periods down a forward after Nicolas Aube-Kubel was given a match penalty for an illegal check to the head of Lightning defenseman Cal Foote, who did not return and was not doing well afterward, according to coach Jon Cooper.
"Not great," Cooper said. "He obviously couldn't come back. That's a tough hit. That defines the word blindside. It's too bad we're playing them again (Sunday) because I doubt he will be around to see the game.''
Tampa Bay's Patrick Maroon fought Washington's Garnet Hathaway while officials were reviewing Aube-Kubel's head shot to Foote early in the second period. A handful of other players were involved in the initial scrum, and they exchanged some pushes and shoves around the fight once Maroon and Hathaway got tangled up.
Nick Paul hopped off the bench for a second before being urged back by Lightning teammates to avoid what would have been an automatic 10-game suspension.
Aube-Kubel was ejected and assessed a match penalty, which is an automatic suspension pending review by the NHL's department of player safety. If suspended, he'd miss at least the second half of these teams' home-and-home series Sunday, if not more.
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The Capitals killed off all five minutes, and Sonny Milano -- who was serving Aubel-Kubel's penalty -- scored coming out of the box on a breakaway 7 seconds after the Lightning power play expired.
Maroon, one of four players in league history to win the Stanley Cup in three consecutive seasons with two different teams, and Washington's Hathaway each got five minutes for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct.
Foote left the ice and was ruled out for the remainder of the game at the second intermission.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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