[Watch] Arber Xhekaj, Sam Carrick exchange heavy punches in retaliation for crunching hit on Lane Hutson

Tempers flared in the game between the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers at the end of the second period on Saturday.

Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson was clearing the puck behind Montreal net before being boarded by Rangers forward Sam Carrick.

In retaliation, Montreal defenseman Arber Xhekaj dropped gloves and exchanged heavy punches with Carrick for nearly 35 seconds before both players fell down and were separated by the referees.

Watch the video here:

Xhekaj and Carrick received five-minute majors for fighting.

The Canadiens went on to lose 4-3 to the Rangers. Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki and Noah Dobson scored for Montreal. While Sam Montembeault made 18 saves.

J.T. Miller, Matthew Robertson, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad scored for New York. Jonathan Quick has 21 shots.

Arber Xhekaj and Canadiens lose 4-3 against Rangers

Juraj Slafkovsky opened the scoring early, finishing off a Cole Caufield feed on a 2-on-1 and beating Jonathan Quick stick side just 93 seconds into the game.

Nick Suzuki doubled Montreal’s lead a couple of minutes later on the power play, blasting home an Ivan Demidov cross-ice pass for his first of the year.

The Rangers answered midway through the period. Mika Zibanejad scored a one-timer from the left circle on the man advantage to make it 2-1.

J.T. Miller tied things up early in the third, after deflecting Adam Fox’s point shot past Sam Montembeault. Then, Matthew Robertson fired a slap shot from the blue line that slipped by Montembeault’s glove to give New York its first lead 3-2.

Artemi Panarin gave them a 4-2 lead after finishing a feed from Zibanejad on the rush for his first of the season.

Noah Dobson got Montreal back within one midway through the period sneaking in from the point and snapping a low shot into the net.

“It’s a 60-minute game." Canadiens HC Martin St. Louis said."When a team scores the next goal to make it 2-1, it changes the game. It was a different game after we took the penalty,”

“The players are competitive. It’s a position that is unforgiving. It’s not all on Monty. We needed to do things better in front of him.”

The Montreal Canadiens next face against Buffalo Sabres on Monday, while the New York Rangers face the Minnesota Wild.