Nick Foligno and Zemgus Girgensons Collision Leads to Brutal Fist Fight at Blackhawks vs. Lightning Game

Things have heated up inside Amalie Arena, Tampa, in the very first period of the clash between the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning. Despite being a regular season clash, the stakes are high for both teams as Tampa Bay is looking to move the table while the Blackhawks struggle at the bottom of the Central Division standings. This tense atmosphere ignited when Chicago’s Nick Foligno collided with Tampa’s Zemgus Girgensons.

Despite the collision looking like an unintended crash between the two players, it took no time for the gloves to come off. Foligno and Girgensons swung their fists at one another, with the Chicago player finding his mark and taking Girgensons down on the ice. Meanwhile, several skirmishes broke out around them as the referees struggled to break up the all-out brawl.

“Chaos in Tampa,” Sportsnet captioned the clip on X. Thankfully, the officials got a grip of things before the brawl got out of hand. While the fight didn’t result in any ejections, it showed that both teams were quite tense about the match in the Bolts’ backyard. The fact that Brayden Point had scored early to take the lead over the Blackhawks also added to the tension.

However, the Bolts didn’t seem relaxed just because they had the lead. After all, the Tampa Bay Lightning didn’t have their best goalie on the net for the night. The Bolts had announced that star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy would have to sit out the game because of illness. While Jonas Johansson replaced Vasilevskiy for the night, the team sorely missed Vasilevskiy.

The absence of the goalie who has played 37 games with a .916 save percentage became apparent as the game progressed. A superhuman shot from 19-year-old Connor Bedard started the comeback for the Chicago Blackhawks. Teuvo Teräväinen, Ryan Donato, and Landon Slaggert followed Bedard to defeat Zemgus Girgensons’ team 4-1.

However, as Nick Foligno’s team ran away with the victory, it prompted another reaction from a Bolts forward.

Tempers flair during the final period

While Nick Foligno and Zemgus Girgensons started the first brawl of the night, it wasn’t the last. Tampa Bay Lightning forward Michael Eyssimont deliberately shoulder-tackled Bedard into the wall for tripping up Erik Cernak. Cernak had an uninterrupted path to the goal when Bedard committed the infraction.

While the officials didn’t waste a moment to blow the whistle, Eyssimont still mounted his tackle after the whistle. This extreme reaction started the second brawl of the night. All hell broke loose!

The Blackhawks’ Tyler Bertuzzi returned the favor by immediately tackling Eyssimont, while several other players from both teams piled on the players. At times, there’s no sport as fun as ice hockey to watch!

While the refs once again got things under control, Michael Eyssimont and Tyler Bertuzzi engaged in a war of words even as the refs forcibly broke up the fight. The frustration from the Bolts’ player was palpable, as he couldn’t keep his cool watching another scoring chance get squandered when his team was down 1-3 and only six minutes on the clock. Talk about tense moments throughout the game.

Unfortunately, the Blackhawks would end all hopes with another goal in the dying moments, taking the final score to 4-1. The disappointing night marked their third loss in the last five games. So at the end of the day, it’s safe to say Nick Foligno’s initial skirmish with Zemgus Girgensons didn’t affect his team’s composure.

Fair play to the gentleman for keeping their cool.