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The Maple Leafs got their revenge on Radko Gudas on Monday night.

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And it didn’t take long.

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Three seconds after the opening faceoff between the Leafs and Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center, Max Domi and Gudas squared off at centre ice, some 2-1/2 weeks after Gudas ended Leafs captain Auston Matthews’ season with a knee-on-knee hit.

Domi got the better of Gudas in the scrap, landing several rights before the players fell to the ice. Both players were assessed fighting majors. Gudas, who has been hampered by a lower-body injury and missed the Ducks’ previous game, didn’t really fight back. He hung on and didn’t throw a punch.

Of course, the fight probably would not have been necessary had the Leafs responded when Gudas hit Matthews during a game at Scotiabank Arena on March 12. But when none of the players on the ice did anything, a group that included Morgan Rielly, Brandon Carlo, William Nylander and Easton Cowan, criticism of the Leafs was quick and sharp.

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Naturally, it has been a topic since.

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Domi mentioned after the Leafs played in Buffalo two nights later that he was “pretty angry” with the news that Matthews was done for the season. And, Domi said, “we play them in a couple of weeks” referring to the Leafs’ visit to Anaheim at the end of the month. Getting a piece of Gudas clearly was on Domi’s mind.

Gudas’ hit on Matthews resulted in a torn medial collateral ligament in the centre’s left knee. Matthews had surgery in New York on March 19 with an expected recovery time of 12 weeks.

Gudas was given a five-game suspension by the National Hockey League and when it ended last week, he told media upon his return to the lineup that he felt “terrible” for the hit.

NHL Department of Player Safety head George Parros was slated to be in attendance on Monday night. Nothing in the fight between Domi and Gudas suggested further discipline.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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