The Flames And Wings Had An Old-Fashioned Dust-Up

Little-known Red Wing Luke Witkowski beat the heck out of Calgary’s Brett Kulak at the end of a Detroit blowout tonight, with a potential gray-area extra punch after he already clearly won. Their fighting sparked additional fisticuffs between the two teams, the kind of which one rarely sees in the NHL these days.

Here’s the whole thing, and then a Twitter video that cuts right to the main stuff:

After Witkowski and Kulak went at it, Witkowski was shown off to the locker room. Unfortunately for the officials, that forced Witkowski to skate right by the Calgary bench. The Flames’ Matthew Tkachuk took the opportunity to spear the Detroit player as he stepped off the ice, and Witkowski came back to get the last word.

The actions of those two hotheads led to some more altercations, with Detroit’s Anthony Mantha landing some punches on Travis Hamonic, and goalie Jimmy Howard eagerly joining the fray. The whole minor brawl ended with the Red Wings gaining a five-minute power play, after 13 total penalties were given.

I know I’m a horrible person for even kind of condoning this brand of barbarism, but damn, do not mess with Luke Witkowski.