Sergachev goes head first into the boards after a blindside hit from Hornqvist.

Things are getting ugly in the closing minutes of Game 4 between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers and it is perhaps Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev who has been on the worst end of it all.

In spite of the fact that the game was already well out of hand, and in spite of the fact that the Lightning were in position to take a commanding 3 - 1 lead in the series, the Florida Panthers were looking to send a message in the final moments of Game 4. Perhaps the loudest part of that message was a thunderous body check courtesy of veteran forward Patric Hornqvist, one that left Sergachev down on the ice for several long moments.

The hit itself was not particularly dirty, Hornqvist did not appear to be late in real time although no doubt there are many who would have liked to see him awarded a boarding call on the play, but it was a devastating one. Hornqvist caught Sergachev with a blind side hit that was delivered through the body, but one that sent the defenseman head first into the boards in an ugly way.

Sergachev traveled quite a long distance from the impact of the hit to the boards and unfortunately, in spite of him barely getting his arm up in time and his body absorbing some of the impact, it was his head that appeared to take the worst of it. The Russian blue liner immediately went limp on the ice and although, thankfully, he was eventually able to skate off under his own power the hit was enough to knock him out for the remainder of the game. 

When you consider the fact that Nikita Kucherov had also left the game with an apparent injury in the game's third period, this proved to be a relatively costly outing for the Lightning in spite of their victory. 

Things continued to degenerate from there with the officials struggling to keep this one under control, with both teams even getting into a scrum late in the game after a clash between Yanni Gourde and Ryan Lomberg setting that off towards the end of the third period and perhaps setting the tone for Game 5.