The Boston Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman and the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy squared off in the second period with Boston up 5-2 and tensions high.
During the Lightning’s second consecutive power play, a scrum broke out as Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel slashed Boston’s Charlie McAvoy. Swayman jumped into the fray, which led Vasilevskiy to start skating down the ice.
Swayman noticed and skated toward Vasilevskiy. Once the gloves and masks were off, the two threw a few punches at each other at center ice before the on-ice officials intervened.
‘I saw Sway just swinging the blocker and it was an instinct just to run toward the red line,’ Vasilevskiy told ESPN. ‘and he accepted the challenge, so thanks to him, he gave me my first (fight) in the NHL.’
Asked by ESPN analyst and former NHL goalie Kevin Weekes if he had a fight elsewhere previously, Vasilevskiy replied: ‘Just on the street, yes. It’s not the same.’
‘That was just an experience of a lifetime,’ he added about the fight with Swayman. ‘I’ll remember that for a long time. It was unreal.’
Sunday’s fight took place on the sixth anniversary of the Cam Talbot-Mike Smith fight in 2020. There had been no goalie fights since then until Jan. 19, 2026, when Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky and San Jose’s Alex Nedelkovic squared off.