PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The 2004 brawl between the Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators still holds the NHL record for the most penalty minutes in a game in NHL history with 419. It ended with 21 fighting majors, 20 ejections and a handful more misconduct penalties. Only one suspension was doled out.

Twenty years later, those who were there recall how it all went down.

WHAT LED TO IT

On Feb. 26, Ottawa’s Martin Havlat high-sticked Philadelphia’s Mark Recchi in the head. He was suspended for two games. The next game came on March 4, a rematch between the Senators and the Flyers, whom they had eliminated the previous two playoffs.

Recchi: “(League executive) Colin Campbell did a good job there.”

Flyers winger John LeClair: “That’s what started it, obviously. Nobody forgets that kind of stuff.”

Flyers goaltender Robert Esche: “There was bad blood going in. It was toward the end of the season, obviously, and I think all of us were getting ready for the playoffs. But for whatever reason, that March day it was a weird springtime or something.”

Senators tough guy Todd Simpson: “The first 55 minutes it was just a regular game. Nobody said to me, ‘Oh, look out, they’re going to be going after Havlat,’ and I didn’t really feel like they were during the game. Nothing really happened during the game. It was pretty run of the mill, just a game in early March.”

ROUND 1

With under 1:45 left in regulation and the Flyers up 5-2, Philadelphia’s Donald Brashear picked a fight with Rob Ray, a bout between two of the most frequent fighters in league history.

Brashear: “You want to make something happen, and you want to get respect back. Something had to be done.”

Esche: “Brash had it made up in his head how that night was going to go at the end of the day. He went up and down the ice if I remember right. Then he came back in front of me, off to the corner they started fighting. It was actually a good fight. Brash was doing a great job.”

Ray: “It was just Donald and I in front and a lot of going on. And I remember coming out of it and I was leaking from the corner of both eyes. And I’m like, ‘I have never been cut before really in anything like that.’”

Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson: “It kind of evolved from there.”

Senators winter Peter Bondra: “It almost felt like the water in a pot started boiling, and one thing pushed to another.”

ESCALATION

Simpson: “The linesman’s taking Brashear over to the bench or to the dressing room. They’re taking Brashear over toward the bench to go to his dressing room and then he just suckered Brian Pothier. Like he just wound up and slugged him, and then I was right there and so I jumped Brashear and grabbed him and it was just a huge brawl.”

Flyers forward Patrick Sharp: “I was on the first shift, the first wave of the brawl, so I actually got pounded pretty good by Todd Simpson (who) grabbed me. … Then another one escalated, and I was on the ice just kind of chilling and I found myself in a 6-on-6 brawl. That’s when Eschie and (Ottawa goaltender) Patty Lalime went at it.”

Esche: “All hell broke loose. I remember Danny Markov laying on the ice and there was a scrum going on. I went over to go pick somebody up and then I turn around and Patrick Lalime was right there, no helmet, no nothing. I was like, ‘Oh, what are you doing here?’ I was shocked. But it was fun.”

Sharp: “The crowd was going crazy. The refs were taking a lot of time to figure out who was kicked out of the game and what the penalties were going to be, and I was able to kind of sneak through it all. I didn’t get any penalties during that brawl, so I stayed in the game. And it was like every whistle there was another brawl going, and slowly but surely the bench was getting quieter and less and less bodies on the ice.”

Simpson: “Someone came into the room and said, ‘Simmer, you didn’t get a penalty, you’re still in the game.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, this is awesome, I’m going to find somebody.’ I went back on the bench, and I’m sitting there and I’m all excited because we’re trying to get some revenge on somebody and then the linesman comes over. He’s like, ‘Todd, what are you doing? You’ve got whatever, 5 and a misconduct.’ That’s kind of what I thought, so I went back to the dressing room for the second time.”