The Carolina Hurricanes dropped the opening game of the Eastern Conference Final to the Florida Panthers in a 5-2 drumming Tuesday night at Lenovo Center.

While it usually takes some time for the intensity to rise, the two teams were ready for it from the drop of the puck with 97 hits between them.

But when the game started to get out of reach, you could tell that emotions began running hot.

There were quite a few questionable plays throughout the game such as Andrei Svechnikov elbowing/kneeing Sergei Bobrovsky as he cut across the crease following a whistle and Aaron Ekblad hitting Jackson Blake with a forearm shiver to the back of the head after the latter scored a late power play goal.

There was also Jonah Gadjovich taking some liberties with Scott Morrow and then again trying to instigate some antics at the final buzzer and just a myriad of slashes, swipes and cross checks from both sides.

But the most notable escalation came between Brad Marchand and Shayne Gostisbehere.

Late in the third period, Marchand attempted to lay a big hit on Gostisbehere, which the veteran defenseman spun off of, but he was not at all happy with what he saw as an attempt to run him.

In response, Gostisbehere shot the puck into Marchand and the Florida forward immediately took exception, throwing down the gloves and going after the Hurricanes blueliner.

Gostisbehere never threw off his gloves though and Marchand was shown the door for the attempted fight with a four-minute roughing penalty and a 10-minute misconduct.

After the game, Gostisbehere admitted he intentionally shot the puck at Marchand.

"I was heated," Gostisbehere said. "Pretty pissed off. He tried to take a run at me, I shot the puck at him. Is what it is. Had a little tussle.

Florida coach Paul Maurice was asked about the incident, but would not offer his opinion on the matter.

"I've got one, but I'll be keeping that to myself,' Maurice said. "I'm not biting on it."

I think it's safe to say that as this series goes on, we can expect to see things escalating even more between these two teams.

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