Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Tony DeAngelo was suspended two games Wednesday for spearing Tampa Bay Lightning forward Corey Perry below the belt, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced.

DeAngelo skated into a scrum in front of Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy before driving his stick into Perry during the third period of the Flyers’ 5-2 loss on Tuesday in Tampa, Fla. The Lightning players quickly came to the aid of Perry and lowered the boom on DeAngelo, who received a five-minute major and a game misconduct.

“I was trying to give him a little shot. I wasn’t looking for it to go there,” DeAngelo said. “He tried to slash my stick out of my hands the second beforehand. He talks all game. So, asked him to fight. Doesn’t want to fight. He’ll tell you that he’s asked me to fight for years. I don’t say no. So there’s not much of an argument there.

“… Replay probably looks a bit worse than it was meant to be. But it is what it is. I took 30 punches on the ground. And when I get up, they don’t let me do what I got to do. So it’s whatever.”

DeAngelo, 27, has one prior suspension from the NHL stemming from physical abuse of an official in 2017. He also received a team suspension and subsequent release from the New York Rangers in 2021 after an incident involving then-teammate Alexandar Georgiev.

DeAngelo has 34 points (10 goals, 24 assists) in 59 games this season, his first with the Flyers.

He has 191 points (44 goals, 147 assists) in 329 career games with the Arizona Coyotes, New York Rangers, Carolina Hurricanes and Flyers.

DeAngelo was selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning with the 19th overall pick of the 2014 NHL draft before being traded to the Coyotes on June 25, 2016, for a second-round pick in the 2016 draft.

–Field Level Media