TAMPA, Fla. — With five minutes left in Monday’s game, Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak delivered a glass-rattling hit on Rangers veteran wing Matt Beleksey, who didn’t take it well.



Beleksey traded shoves with the 6-foot-4 Slovak, then dropped his gloves.



There was Beleksey, a veteran of 36 NHL fights, scrapping with Cernak, a rookie of 15 NHL games.



But you couldn’t tell which was which. There were haymakers thrown. Several jabs. And it was Beleksey who ended up falling to the ice first.



As Fox Sports Sun analyst Brian Engblom said, Cernak “did better than I thought.”



“I’m not sure (Cernak) knew who he was getting involved with,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “But he didn’t back down and handled himself extremely well.”



There’s no wonder Cernak’s nickname is “Drago.”



Ever since Cernak, 21, arrived as a mid-November call-up,...