{"id":141114,"date":"2026-02-02T21:14:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/141114\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T21:14:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:14:36","slug":"bruins-swayman-gets-into-goalie-fight-with-tampas-vasilevskiy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/141114\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins\u2019 Swayman gets into goalie fight with Tampa’s Vasilevskiy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBoston Bruins\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSwayman and Vasilevskiy dropped the gloves in front of over 64,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"Tampa
\n\tJeremy Swayman and Andrei Vasilevskiy dropped the gloves on Sunday. (AP Photo\/Chris O’Meara)\t<\/p>\n

TAMPA \u2014 Jeremy Swayman finally got his wish.<\/p>\n

The Bruins goalie and Tampa Bay Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy dropped the gloves in a rare scrap between goalies \u2014 energizing a crowd of more than 64,000 at Raymond James Stadium during Boston\u2019s eventual shootout loss in Sunday\u2019s Stadium Series game.<\/p>\n

With the Bruins holding a 5-2 lead over Tampa past the midway point of the second period, the temperature spiked on a chilly night in Tampa after Lightning forward Brandon Hagel tried to jam loose a puck in Swayman\u2019s pads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charlie McAvoy<\/a> took exception and knocked Hagel to the ice, with an incensed Swayman joining in the fray by landing a few shoves against the Lightning forward.<\/p>\n

After Swayman removed himself from the dogpile, he looked down the other end of the ice at Vasilevskiy, skating out of his crease as the Tampa goalie made his way to center ice.<\/p>\n

With a hockey stick still wedged into his pads, Swayman met Vasilevskiy near the blue line, with the duo dropping the gloves and removing their masks as the crowd roared in approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The actual scrap wasn\u2019t exactly a heavyweight bout. Vasilevskiy eventually took Swayman to the ice after they traded a few hooks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Swayman and Vasilevskiy were issued five-minute major penalties for fighting and an additional two-minute penalty for leaving the crease to take part in the fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cFighting the biggest, toughest goalie in the league,\u201d Swayman said. \u201cSo wouldn\u2019t be my first choice, but glad we got the first one out of the way. Probably retired after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both netminders stayed in the game, with Swayman finishing the game with 41 saves in the eventual 6-5 shootout loss. <\/p>\n

After the game wrapped, the goalies exchanged words and hugs in the handshake line.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we did,\u201d Swayman said of speaking with Vasilevskiy. \u201cHe wanted to win, which is good. So did I. So that\u2019s game respecting game. We see fights every single game, and just got that one out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday was Swayman\u2019s first fight as a pro, but the 27-year-old netminder has had run-ins before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last March, Swayman nearly got into a fight with Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper before the refs intervened.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

In an eventual overtime win over the Canadiens in November 2023, Swayman appeared to challenge Habs goalie Sam Montembeault down the other end of the ice after a full line scrap spilled out around his net.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just a few months later, Swayman skated out to center ice to challenge Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll after more post-whistle pleasantries were exchanged between Boston and Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the end result of Sunday\u2019s game, Marco Sturm<\/a> had no issues with Swayman\u2019s scrap in what was a highlight-heavy showdown between Atlantic Division foes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis game pretty much had everything,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate we were on the wrong side. \u2026 Goalie fight. What else you want, right? So I think overall, it was just a good show today and Sway \u2014 having a goalie fight? They hugged it out after the game. So I think everything is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the latest Boston sports news<\/p>\n

Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Bruins Swayman and Vasilevskiy dropped the gloves in front of over 64,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-141114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-tampa","9":"tag-tampa-headlines","10":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}