Team Canada's Brandon Hagel said fighting Team USA's Matthew Tkachuk was "for the flag," not "for the cameras," on Saturday in their 4 Nations Face-Off game.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and the 38th of his career in the Tampa Bay Lightning's 3-0 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night. Nikita Kucherov, Erik Cernak and Brandon Hagel scored to help Tampa Bay win its seventh consecutive game.

Brandon Hagel and Victor Hedman scored second-period goals, and the host Tampa Bay Lightning secured their season-best sixth straight win in a 4-1 thrashing of the slumping Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.

On a team of superstars, players such as Brandon Hagel can get overlooked. That is just as true with the Tampa Bay Lightning as it is with Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off. So, Hagel took advantage of an off day at the tournament to step into the spotlight and throw some gas on what was already a raging bonfire ahead of Canada’s rematch with the United States in Thursday’s tournament final.

When the puck dropped in Montreal’s Bell Centre on Saturday night, Team Canada’s Brandon Hagel dropped his gloves along with Team USA’s Matthew Tkachuk. It was the first of three fights that took place between the hockey rivals in nine seconds for their 4 Nations Face-Off matchup.

Canada's Brandon Hagel (38) and United States' Noah Hanifin (15) battle in front of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (37) during third period of 4 Nations Face-Off hockey game in Montreal on Saturday, Feb.

Ahead of Thursday's 4 Nations Face-Off title game, Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel continued to trade chirps at TD Garden.

From the first punch to when the linesmen jumped in, the fight between Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel lasted 25 seconds. The war of words that followed entered its fifth day on Wednesday. In the round-robin game between Team USA and Canada in the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off on Saturday in Montreal,

Brayden Point scores a goal and Brandon Hagel has an assist as Jon Cooper’s team bounces back from Saturday’s loss to the United States.

Matthew Tkachuk heard the gist of Brandon Hagel's comments from Tuesday, when the Canada forward said he and his teammates play for the flag and not the cameras, that they don't need group chats to initiate their passion for playing for the country.

The fight between Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel in the opening seconds of the Team USA-Canada game on Saturday certainly didn’t settle any lingering tensions. Instead, Tkachuk and Hagel have only fueled the 4 Nations Face-Off rivalry ahead of the championship game in Boston on Thursday — and group chats are at the crux of the recent jabs.

Who better to author it than Canada forward Brandon Hagel, who dropped the gloves with U.S. forward Matthew Tkachuk just two seconds into a 3-1 loss at Bell Centre in Montreal on Saturday? "We're out there playing for a flag,