Oilers star Warren Foegele is ejected from Stanley Cup Game 2 for brutally kneeing Panthers’ Eetu Luostarinen with the dirty hit sparking mass brawl

Edmonton’s Warren Foegele was ejected during the Oilers’ Game 2 loss in the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night for his knee-on-knee hit that injured Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen midway through the first period.

Foegele stuck out his left leg into Luostarinen’s left leg and a scrum ensued after as the Finnish forward laid on the ice and got medical attention in the Panthers’ 4-1 win.

While he was down, Panthers center Anton Lundell and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov were seen throwing punches at several Oilers players before being restrained by teammates.

Luostarinen eventually skated off with athletic trainers and immediately went down the tunnel.

Officials reviewed the hit and decided it warranted a 5-minute major penalty and a game misconduct. 

Edmonton’s Warren Foegele was ejected from Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final for his knee-on-knee hit on the Panthers’ Eetu Luostarinen midway through the first period

It was not immediately clear if the NHL’s department of player safety might consider supplemental discipline for Foegele.

Just 97 seconds afterward, Florida defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson was penalized for tripping. 

The Oilers scored their first goal of the series at 4 on 4 when fellow Swede Mattias Ekholm beat Sergei Bobrovsky five-hole on an odd-man rush.

Luostarinen returned to the ice a few minutes later.

Luostarinen was playing in just his second Cup final game after missing the series last year with a broken leg.

Foegele returned to the Oilers lineup Saturday night in the series opener after being a healthy scratch for the final three games of the Western Conference final against Dallas.

Evan Rodrigues had two goals in the third period, Niko Mikkola and Aaron Ekblad also scored for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 18 shots for Florida, which was 1-8 all-time in Cup final games before this series started – and now is two wins away from capturing its first championship.

However, the win came with a price for Florida as the Panthers lost captain Aleksander Barkov when Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl launched toward him midway through the third period and hit him in the head. 

Barkov remained down for some time, needed help getting to the bench and went down the tunnel for the Florida locker room for further evaluation.

Foegele was given his marching orders, two days after returning to the Oilers line up on Sat.

Luostarinen was tended to on the ice after the hit as he had to leave the game before returning

Draisaitl was given only a minor penalty for roughing on the hit that knocked Barkov from the game. Rodrigues got a tip-in goal to make it 3-1, the first power-play score Edmonton allowed in its last 34 times being down a man.

Mattias Ekholm scored and Stuart Skinner stopped 24 shots for the Oilers, who now have to buck some serious history.

Edmonton has only successfully rallied from a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series once – against San Jose in Round 2 of the 2006 playoffs. And teams that start the Stanley Cup Final down 2-0 have come back to win only five times in 54 previous situations. 

The series resumes with Game 3 in Edmonton on Thursday night