Ryan Lomberg exacts revenge on Keegan Kolesar for Stanley Cup Final hit on Matthew Tkachuk
Lomberg fought Kolesar during Florida's 4-2 win over Vegas on Saturday, knocking him down with a single punch
They say payback is a dish best served cold.
The particular brand of retribution served up on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena had been six months in the making.
Let’s go back to June, during Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights.
Florida star Matthew Tkachuk was leveled by Vegas’ Keegan Kolesar, a hit that cracked Tkachuk’s sternum.
It effectively took the Panthers’ leader out of the Final, and Florida wouldn’t win another game, dropping the series in five.
The likely candidate on Florida’s roster to hold Kolesar accountable for his actions would be forward and tough guy Ryan Lomberg, but he suffered a broken thumb that required surgery during the opening round of the playoffs and played the final two rounds with a massive cast on his hand, so fighting wasn’t really an option for Lomberg at the time.
Fast forward to Saturday.
Florida, coming off consecutive losses and having dropped four of their past five games, was as hungry for a win as the team had been all season.
Combine that with facing the team that ended their season and crushed their dreams and it’s not hard to see how the Panthers may have had some extra motivation.
“I think once you start doing the video and you see some familiar faces and their logo, it brings back some not so good memories,” Lomberg said. “As it got closer to game time, I think the blood started boiling a little bit.”
As the game got going, it didn’t take very long for things to boil over.
The first time that Lomberg was on the ice with Kolesar, the two were out there together for about 40 seconds. Nothing materialized, though apparently the idea of squaring up was broached by Lomberg.
“Earlier he said, ‘You missed your chance last season, you should have fought me then,’ but I told him I was in a cast, there wasn’t too much I could do about it,” Lomberg said. “He was obviously understanding and gave me my shot.”
The next time Kolesar’s number was called, it was before a faceoff in the Vegas’ end.
It just so happened that Lomberg’s line was sent out for a rare offensive zone start as well.
In the time it took for the puck to travel from the official’s hand to the ice below, Lomberg and Kolesar dropped their gloves and sticks and prepared to square off.
The two had been chirping prior to the draw, and it was clear something was up when Kevin Stenlund was booted from the faceoff circle by linesman Jonny Murray.
Stenlund began skating toward Lomberg to have him take his place, but Lomberg immediately pointed his stick at teammate Will Lockwood so he could take the draw and Lomberg could stay where he was, next to Kolesar.
“Yeah I told Locky (Lockwood) to take it because I’m not jumping in there,” Lomberg said with a smile after the game.
As for the fight itself, there really wasn’t much to it.
The brawl lasted all of a few seconds and featured exactly one punch.
Lomberg immediately caught Kolsear with a straight right to the cheek, causing the 6-foot-2, 216-pounder to crumple to the ice.
Lomberg, for what it’s worth, is listed at 5-foot-9 and 184 pounds.
“I was just kinda shocked,” Panthers winger Carter Verhaeghe said of the punch. “Lombo (Lomberg) is a tough guy, and (Kolesar) is a tough guy too. He got him good.”
It was an unfortunate ending for Kolesar, who seemed to be doing Lomberg a solid by accepting his fight invitation six months after the fact.
“Credit to him for letting me get redemption for last year,” Lomberg said. “He gave me the chance to kind of even the score, and he’s obviously a pretty tough customer.”
Ice hockey is one of the more violent sports you can play, but it also takes an incredible amount of skill and discipline to master.
Allowing players a physical release in exchange for a five-minute penalty seems like a fair trade for the result that comes in the form of this beautiful game.
"That's what is special about hockey," said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. "In an appropriate way, it's the potential violence and the grace and beauty of the game. The passing and the plays, but the hitting, it's a violent collision – I'm not talking about a fight, but the hit – that's what makes hockey different in so many ways. There's still a lot of ballet out there, but then it's a bare knuckles fight sometimes too.”
Toward the end of the first period during a stoppage in play, the two combatants were released from their respective penalty boxes.
When Lomberg skated across the ice to the Panthers bench, he was met with a chorus of cheers and stick taps.
His teammates knew what he had done, and exactly why he did it.
“That was awesome. That was one of the coolest things I’ve seen live,” Panthers forward Sam Bennett told Bally Sports Florida’s Katie Engelson during an interview after the first period.
“He's always going to have guys backs,” Bennett added after the game. “He's a warrior, and that was that was awesome to see. Good for him.”
The fight was part of a dominant first period for Florida, outshooting the Golden Knights 20-3 and out-chancing them 9-2, per Natural Stat Trick.
It set the tone for what turned out to be a solid 4-2 win by the Panthers, one that was much needed.
Florida had dropped four of its past five, but now the Cats get to head into the holiday break on a high note.
“I think we're all really happy with our game tonight,” said Lomberg. “We were hard, we were fast, we were physical when we needed to be, so it's a good one to leave off on.
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