In the midst of a critical Game 3 of the tied Stanley Cup Final, the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers exchanged blows as the horn sounded to end the first period Monday night at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla.

The first period saw a whopping eight penalties—four on each side. Florida's Carter Verhaeghe scored the only power-play goal of the period, the second goal of the night for the Panthers after Brad Marchand opened up the scoring less than a minute into the game.

The game got a bit chippy as the first-period horn sounded when Panthers center Anton Lundell tried to get an extra shot through after the buzzer. Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard took exception and gave Lundell a cross-check before Lundell countered with a subtle punch to the jaw.

Chaos ensued from there as Mattias Ekholm, another Oilers defender, went at Lundell and other players paired up in the scrum. We almost got an Evander Kane-Matthew Tkachuk fight before the referees stepped in. You can watch the full sequence, including an additional angle of Lundell's punch which led to a roughing penalty, below.

Lundell's penalty led to a power-play goal for Edmonton's Corey Perry, which was assisted by Bouchard and Ekholm to start the second period. The Panthers answered with two more goals to take a 4–1 lead as they hope to take the series lead in Game 3.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Panthers, Oilers Get Into Heated Scrum After Penalty-Filled First Period of Game 3.

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