More spice was added in the heated rivalry between the United States and Canada as both the nations locked horns in the National Hockey League game at Centre Bell on Saturday, February 15. The game was erupted as players from both the nations were engaged in a heated physical fight in the starting moments of the match.  A total of three fights took place in the first nine seconds of the match. 

Within the first couple of seconds after the start of the game, USA's Matthew Tkachuk and Team Canada's Brandon Hagel came to blows and went on to fight physically leaving their hockey sticks. After a few moments, the match referee came to intervene after both the players fells on the ground. However, this wasn’t the first fight of the match. 

Watch the video here:

Back-to-back fights after restart brings heat in USA vs Canada NHL match

The play restarted followed by the heated banter between Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel. Within a few seconds of the restart, Tkachuk's brother, Brady Tkachuk went on hand-to-hand with Canada's Sam Bennett. After six seconds, American JT Miller and Canada's Colton Parayko also got involved in a physical fight. After the first intermission, Brandon Hagel alleged Matthew Tkachuk for initiating the fight. 

"Just try to get some energy into the building," Hagel said as quoted in Yahoo Sports. "He asked, and I'm not backing down from him," he added.

However, the American team also didn’t get a warm welcome from the Canadian crowd as they kept booing during USA’s national anthem before the start of the match. In the end, USA defeated Canada by 3-1. Notably, this was the first time after 2022 that both USA and Canada locked horns in an ice hockey match.