Archibald gets crosschecked and responds by raining down punches on Pionk!

Sometimes you just catch the wrong guy on the wrong day.

On Sunday night the Arizona Coyotes were facing off against the New York Rangers in a battle between two teams near the bottom of their respective divisions. Although the game itself will not likely mean anything in the grand scheme of things the Coyotes put on one hell of a show for their fans on Sunday by absolutely decimating the Rangers and star goaltender Henrik Lundqvist in the process.

The Coyotes put up 5 goals on Lundqvist in less than 2 periods and although the veteran netminder would likely want a few of those goals back he was largely left hung out to dry by his fellow Rangers on the ice. The Coyotes would cruise to victory after Lundqvist was pulled and although they didn't put up another goal for the remainder of the game the Rangers never managed to find the back of the net either which meant smooth sailing for the Yotes.

The highlight of the game however may not have come on the score sheet, but rather via some fisticuffs between Coyotes forward Josh Archibald and New York Rangers defensmean Neal Pionk. It was Pionk who got things started when he delivered a stiff cross check to the back of Archibald, something that Archibald understandably took exception to, and it even looked like Pionk was adding some significant trash talk after the fact. I may be reading too much into this but it practically looks like Pionk was trying to goad Archibald into dropping the gloves with him.

Unfortunately for Pionk it would be a decision, or series of decisions, that he would come to regret because he not only was successful in his attempts to goad Archibald into the fight but he seemed to awaken the beast lying dormant within the Coyotes forward. As soon as the 2 men dropped the gloves and tangled up Archibald began to rain down heavy punches on Pionk's head, regardless of the fact that his helmet was still on at the time. Eventually Archibald would dislodge the helmet but he continued to throw punches with bad intentions until the officials stepped in.

[pub]