Max Domi Drags Alex Iafallo Into First Career NHL Fight, Beats the Brakes Off of Him
With the Leafs down by 2 goals, Max Domi tried to spark his team by drawing Jets' Alex Iafallo into a scrap, laying a pounding on the first-time fighter.
During their early matinee affair with the Winnipeg Jets, the Toronto Maple Leafs faced an early 2-0 deficit as Kyle Connor notched his first goal of the game at the tail end of the first period before doubling his total with an early tally in the second period.
With the Leafs perhaps needing a spark, Max Domi decided to take matters into his own hands and attempted to draw Jets forward Alex Iafallo into a fight. Iafallo eventually agreed after a few seconds of pushing and shoving, which ultimately became his first career fight.
Iafallo entered today's contest with just 92 career PIMs across 8 seasons with 20 being his career-high that he set in 2022-23. Domi, on the other hand, is a more seasoned veteran with 651 PIMs across 10 seasons, and his 118 that he accrued last year with the Leafs was his career-best.
While both players dropped the gloves and started throwing haymakers, Domi got the best of his counterpart in the fight, which can be seen here, and ended up receiving the extra penalty for a unsportsmanlike conduct, putting the Jets on the power play.
You can see through the video that perhaps the referees noticed Domi's attempts to get Iafallo to fight, which started with him grabbing his helmet as well as yanking on the back of his collar, which must've drawn Iafallo into the skirmish.
Fortunately, the penalty didn't cost the Leafs on the scoreboard as they were able to kill it off, unlike their first attempt, which got the scoring started for the Jets.
Shortly after the penalty kill, the Maple Leafs jumped on a power play of their own and cut the deficit in half off the stick of John Tavares.
Perhaps Domi's antics worked after all as the Leafs looked to have a lot more jump in their skates.
