St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington was up to his old antics against the Minnesota Wild, and almost caused the ultra-rare goalie fight on Wednesday night.
During the second period, Wild forward Ryan Hartman scored a power-play goal to break a 4-4 tie. After the goal, Hartman skated by the crease bumping into Binnington on his way to celebrate, and unsurprisingly, the Blues goaltender took exception.
Binnington charged after Hartman, sparking a full-on line brawl. As the Blues goaltender was being ushered out of the scrum by a linesman, Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury skated the length of the ice to join in on the action.
The two netminders would have almost certainly exchanged blows if it hadn’t been for the two linesmen stepping in front.
After the game, both goaltenders seemed to be disappointed that they were not allowed to square off with each other.
“I felt that was my guy,” Fleury said. “I had to take care of him.”
Binnington’s feelings were similar.
“It kind of felt like it was our moment,” the Blues goalie explained. “I’ve got nothing but respect for Fleury, too. He’s a legendary goalie, and coming down there, yeah it shows a lot about him.”
In the aftermath of the chaos, Binnington was assessed a match penalty, Fleury a two-minute minor for leaving the crease and Hartman a two-minute minor for roughing.
Binnington gave up five goals on 24 shots before he was ejected for the game.
The Wild went on to win 8-5 in a high-scoring affair.
It seems as though Ric Flair may have had the players just a little too amped up. The former wrestler also made it clear he was not thrilled with the decision to not let the goalies fight.
Flair was even asked by reporters after the game if he would have liked to see the two goalies go at it, to which he had a predictable answer.
“Hell yeah I was wishing that,” Flair said. “I would’ve loved that.”
We are sure he wouldn’t have been the only one.
