Alex Tuch drops the mitts in extremely rare fight during an international game (video)

The 16 participating nations have preparing for the upcoming IIHF World Hockey Championship by playing exhibition games before the tournament gets going on Friday in Riga and Tampere.

On Tuesday, the United States was taking on Germany and a pretty rare thing occurred. During the game, Buffalo Sabres forward Alex Tuch got into it with German defenceman Tobias Fohrler after a whistle. Both players dropped the mitts and started throwing punches, with Tuch landing some heavy blows on Fohrler.

This is rare: a fight in an international hockey game.

Alex Tuch and Tobias Fohrler went at it. pic.twitter.com/68O1HDb6qP— Steven Ellis (@SEllisHockey) May 9, 2023

Here's the whole sequence that led to Alex Tuch's fight. pic.twitter.com/8cfjWrwv5E— Steven Ellis (@SEllisHockey) May 9, 2023

Fighting almost never happens in international hockey, mainly due to the International Ice Hockey's rules. IIHF rules dictate that any player engaging in a fight during a sanctioned event will receive a five-minute major, a match penalty and are ejected from the game.

Because it was only an exhibition game, International Ice Hockey Federation rules don't apply, which means the fight was allowed, with Tuch and Fohrler each receiving a five-minute major for fighting.

In fact, a fight did occur during last year's World Championship between Finland's Saku Maenalanen and Norway's Magnus Brekke following a board battle. Both players were ejected from the game.