Hockey fight turns bloody as Mathieu Olivier and Scott Sabourin unleash vicious punches!

It didn’t take long for the intensity to boil over. In the middle of the first period between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Tampa Bay Lightning, Mathieu Olivier and Scott Sabourin squared off and dropped the gloves, quickly becoming one of the season’s most memorable tilts.

Both players came out swinging with everything they had. Olivier connected with several powerful right hands, while Sabourin answered with heavy lefts of his own. Neither man backed down.

By the time officials stepped in, both combatants were bloodied from the exchange, with Olivier bleeding from his mouth and Sabourin sporting a visible gash on his nose.

Olivier has long been known as one of the league's most willing and capable fighters, so seeing him take real damage in a bout added an extra layer of intrigue to the exchange. Sabourin, no stranger to the enforcer role, clearly came prepared to go toe to toe.

They sparked the fire in their teammates, and another fight broke out right after the tilt between Olivier and Sabourin, when Ryan Lomberg and Jeffrey Viel dropped the mitts and traded blows.

Two clear reminders that old-school hockey toughness is far from extinct.