Last night, Brandon Hagel dropped the gloves against Juraj Slafkovsky in the second period—and he wasn’t done there. From the penalty box, Hagel continued to taunt his opponent.
The matchup between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadiens has been heated, to say the least. Game 1 was a hard-fought battle that ended in a 4–3 overtime Canadiens win, and Game 2 didn’t disappoint.
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”Let’s be honest”
Tampa Bay bounced back with a 3–2 overtime victory, with J.J. Moser scoring the game-winner. The series is now tied as it heads to Montreal for Game 3 on Friday.
“The guys played hard. They are a determined group. When there are obstacles in the way, they’ll try to get through them any way possible. Let’s be honest—going up there down 0–2, your margin for error keeps getting smaller and smaller. At least we kept our margin for error the same, if not even gave ourselves a slightly better chance,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper told reporters after the game.
Brandon Hagel vs. Juraj Slafkovsky
Brandon Hagel was a key player for the Lightning. He recorded one goal and one assist, along with seven penalty minutes. He first received two minutes for roughing Josh Anderson in the opening period. Then, in the second, he dropped the gloves with Juraj Slafkovsky. After chirping each other face-to-face, they both engaged in a huge tilt. Despite being 40 pounds lighter than Slafkovsky, Hagel managed to knock him down. But he didn’t stop there—while in the penalty box, Hagel taunted Slafkovsky with a “go-to-sleep” gesture.
You can watch the fight and Hagel’s taunting below.
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