[Must Watch] Arber Xhekaj, Matt Rempe chuck knuckles in heavyweight fight ending in a slam

The fans in Montreal were treated to a good fight between Habs defenseman Arber Xhekaj and the New York Rangers' Matt Rempe on Sunday. The pair traded some heavy blows before Xhekaj dropped the latter to the ground.

At around the three-minute mark in the third period, Rempe roughed up his opponent even before Xhekaj could drop his gloves. But as soon as he dropped his mitts Xhekaj pounded away, which brought huge cheers from the crowd at Bell Centre.

Both Xhekaj and Rempe are known to be fierce fighters on the ice. The Canadiens' 23-year-old has had a reduced fight slate this year with this being just his fourth of the season. As a heavyweight, he has stood up for his teammates featuring in 16 bouts so far and seemed to have won 12 of them and has earned the nickname 'Sheriff.'

Xhekaj's fight comes within a day of him refusing to square up against Ryan Reaves of the Toronto Maple Leafs. With the Habs leading 3-0 at home at the end of the first period, the Canadian declined a challenge by Reaves.

As for Rempe, he has again found himself in the thick of things for everything unrelated to hockey. He recently served an eight-game suspension for boarding Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen. Interestingly that was the second suspension of his career, having already been benched for a blatant hit to the head of New Jersey defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler.

Canadiens edge past Rangers in see-saw battle

The New York Rangers took the lead four times on Sunday and each time the Habs found a way to equalise the score. In overtime, Montreal, with a buoyant Bell Centre crowd behind them, scored the winning goal to take two points.

Patrik Laine was the goal scorer for the Canadiens with 3:20 played in overtime. He was the fifth different goalscorer of the game for Martin St. Louis' side, which was coming off a damaging 7-3 loss at the hands of their cross-country rival Toronto Maple Leafs the previous day. The Habs have won three of their last four and sit just outside the playoff spots with 50 points.

Their Original Six counterparts, the New York Rangers have 48 points. Peter Laviolette's team continues to pick up points as its point streak is now at eight games.