Things got chippy late in the first period Saturday night in Montreal.

Lightning captain Steven Stamkos took exception to a near knee-to-knee collision initiated by Canadiens defenseman Karl Alzner on the league's leading scorer, Nikita Kucherov.

Stamkos rushed over to drop the gloves with Alzner, marking his first fight since March 2015 and the third of the goalscorer's 10-year career. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't much of a joust.

The infamous Ice Dance: https://t.co/vTnnlz0mAT
— Kenny Schafer⚡️ (@Mrkennyschafer) February 25, 2018

Stamkos was punished for sticking up for his teammate, receiving an instigator minor and a 10-minute misconduct in addition to the typical five minutes for fighting. A few minutes later, Brendan Gallagher and Victor Hedman were trading punches after Gallagher appeared to check the Lightning defenseman behind the play.

Gallagher and Hedman don't like each other... pic.twitter.com/zqZzYnVQ2Y

— Jared Book (@jaredbook) February 25, 2018

Both players were sent to the box with matching roughing minors. Kucherov remained in the game after the initial hit and got his revenge on the scoreboard, firing home his 33rd goal of the season to give Tampa Bay the lead in the second period