Evander Kane, Alex Petrovic get tossed after fighting three times in one game
As sporting rituals go, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is about as Americana as it gets. Turns out the Canadian pastime has a version of its own.
Only, instead of “one, two, three strikes you’re out,” it’s “one, two, three fights you’re both out.”
Just take a look at what happened in Buffalo on Tuesday night.
While the visiting Florida Panthers and host Sabres were busy piling on the goals in an eventual 7-4 victory for Florida, the Sabres’ Evander Kane and Florida’s Alex Petrovic were piling on the penalty minutes, until the officials said no more.
The two combined for 58 penalty minutes -- every second of them for an offense committed against one another -- and, after dropping the gloves for the third time against each other, were ejected from the game with 7:57 to play and Florida ahead 6-3.
As far as the judges’ scorecard, the fans, much of social media and -- as you can see in the video above -- Kane himself all scored the evening 3-0 in favor of Kane. But Petrovic notched the Gordie Howe hat trick, adding a goal and an assist to his fighting exploits. Kane also had a goal, but no helper.
"I thought I'd try to get the crowd back into it a bit and kind of set the tone moving forward," Kane told the media after the game, adding "I just think we have to have a tougher mentality at home. I think that's what we've been lacking here a little bit."
After enjoying the highlights, enjoy these historical -- and amusing -- notes about the tripleheader:
Evander Kane letting Alex Petrovic know he's 2-0 on the night in scraps. They ended up dropping the gloves 3 times. pic.twitter.com/GxtTEia098
— NHL EXPERT PICKS (@NHLexpertpicks) February 10, 2016
First career multi-point night ✅
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) February 10, 2016
Gordie Howe Hat Trick ✅#SpaceyInSpace ✅ pic.twitter.com/U8Drno9dOa
The Associated Press contributed to this report
