Bogosian goes after Hartman after slewfoot on Colton.

When you act like a bit of a jerk in the National Hockey League, there is sometimes a price to pay.

On Sunday night the Minnesota Wild squared off against the Tampa Bay Lightning and things got pretty heated between these 2 sides during the game's opening period. You can credit Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman for that, the veteran winger really upset the Lightning when, late in the period, he delivered a very blatant looking slewfoot to Lightning forward Ross Colton.

It was a nasty looking slewfoot, one that had Colton fully horizontal in mid-air at one point, and based on the reaction to it every single man on the ice saw it happen. Both the officials immediately raised their arms and every Lightning player on the ice went straight after Hartman, but to the winger's credit he seemed to realize what he had done.

Although a slewfoot is an extremely dangerous play and should be punished, Hartman appeared to try and catch Colton to make sure he didn't fall down in a dangerous manner. I'll admit I may be giving him a little too much credit here given the slewfoot, but that's just the way it looked to me.

Here's a replay:

As I said the Lightning were not the least bit pleased about that one and no one seemed more angry than veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian. Bogosian not only went after Hartman immediately following the slewfoot, but he also immediately dropped his gloves in a sign that he was ready to dole out some punishment.

Bogosian wouldn't find anyone to tango with however and Hartman was escorted to the penalty box, but when he exited the box just 2 minutes later the Lightning veteran was there waiting for him. After a brief exchange of words between the two men they both proceeded to drop their gloves and the fight was officially on.

Bogosian swung wildly at Hartman, clearly trying to take his head off, but all he succeeded in doing was dislodging Hartman's helmet from his head. Bogosian's desire to take Hartman's head off may have been his undoing in the end, as he never seemed able to regain his balance after a particularly wild swing early on.