Fight night in Nashville: Wild and Predators get into 3 fights in first 6 minutes of their matchup

The Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators presumably met up for a hockey game on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena. However, spectators might be excused for thinking they had tickets for a boxing or UFC event instead.

Less than two minutes into the game, the Wild and Predators mixed it up in two fights on the ice.

First, Nashville winger Zachary L’Heureux and Minnesota center Yakov Trenin dropped gloves.

According to the Wild’s broadcast, Trenin intended to go after L’Heureux as they lined up for the faceoff, likely based on a previous skirmish the two had during their Dec. 31 matchup. L’Heureux kicked at the skate of Minnesota’s Jared Spurgeon (slew-footing him), causing an injury that’s sidelined him for the past eight games.

Two seconds later, Wild winger Marcus Foligno — who said L’Heureux would “have to answer” for the play on Spurgeon — squared off with Predators defenseman Luke Schenn. Fueled by vengeance, Foligno appeared to win the fight.

With that backstory, the Wild figured filling up the penalty box was worth the effort.

Minnesota and Nashville had time for one more fight in the first period. Following a goal by David Jiricek to give the Wild a 1–0 lead, teammate Ryan Hartman and the Predators’ Mark Jankowski went at it during the subsequent faceoff.

The Wild went 3-for-3 on fights in the opening six minutes of their matchup, taking out some frustration on Nashville. However, Minnesota may have burned off all of its energy exacting revenge. With the fighting out of the way, the Predators — third from last in the Western Conference — might win the game.

Nashville took a 4–1 lead in the second period. Colton Sissons and Filip Forsberg each scored to give the Predators a 2–1 lead after the first period. Then Steven Stamkos and Fedor Svechkov added goals in the first two minutes of the second period.