BUFFALO -- As he anticipated, Bruins winger Milan Lucic had a fight waiting for him tonight, 11 days after he decked Sabres goalie Ryan Miller during a game at Boston Garden.

Lucic, the rugged Bruins left winger, took the ice for the first time with 1:21 gone in the first period at First Niagara Center. Moments later, also as expected, Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff rolled Paul Gaustad over the boards to line up against Lucic in the faceoff circle to Tim Thomas's left.

As the puck dropped, both Lucic and Gaustad dropped gloves and removed helmets, initiating the much-anticipated bout between the two behemoths. And as is often the case, it wasn't much of a fight.

Gaustad, about the same size as the powerful Lucic, just missed landing a couple of stiff right uppercuts aimed at Lucic's chin. Lucic barely flinched, ducked the attempts, and eventually landed enough blows to Gaustad's noggin to drop the big winger.

It didn't appear that Gaustad was hurt badly, his fall to both knees perhaps more a product of being off balance or simply tired.

Both players were sentenced to the perfunctory five-minute major penalties for fighting. When the penalties were over, they both skated out of the penalty box without further incident.

Good thing it was not a pay-per-view event.