Dan Muse Publicly Calls Out Officials in Post-Game Interview Following Controversial Ruling

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers embraced a different decade Tuesday night in a crazy and physical contest that had all the aspects of a professional wrestling bout and not much to do with a hockey game. It seems that the Battle of Pennsylvania is once again a rough-and-tumble affair.

The Flyers eventually secured a 3-2 victory in a shootout, but were involved in endless moments of drama throughout.

The two teams had goals in overtime nullified: Malkin had his goal disallowed due to premature entrance to the ice in a situation where a penalty had been delayed, and the Flyers' goal was due to an offside.

Then chaos broke out. As the overtime horn sounded, Trevor Zegras yanked Noel Acciari's helmet off and started throwing punches as he was held back by a linesman.

In all, eight players were given game misconducts. That rendered Sidney Crosby unable to play in the shootout. Crosby's team was obviously furious. Head coach Dan Muse spoke afterward about the situation, albeit briefly.

Although outplayed for a large portion of the evening, Pittsburgh maintained life through Arturs Silovs' phenomenal goaltending and a tying goal in the third period from Crosby.

Their defeat was sealed when a shot in the shootout by Ville Koivunen sailed wide.

Later, sources throughout the league were frustrated with how officials handled this brawl and how they prevented Crosby from taking shots when both benches had players on the ice and even had open doors to the Zamboni.

It was a bitter defeat but a fiery reminder that this rivalry has had far too long a slumber and has certainly woken up.