BUFFALO — Morgan Rielly didn’t hold back when he saw Toronto Maple Leafs teammate Auston Matthews take a bodycheck from Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson. The situation escalated to the point where Rielly dropped the gloves with Thompson, earning an additional two-minute penalty in the process.

When asked about his decision to fight, the Leafs defenseman kept it simple.

“Just hockey,” he said.

Although the incident temporarily put his team on the penalty kill, Rielly’s teammates and head coach appreciated his actions in standing up for their captain.

“I love it. I have no problem with that,” Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said after Toronto’s 6-3 victory over Buffalo at KeyBank Center on Friday. “We killed that penalty off. Mo is a team guy, a team-first guy, and I thought it was great.”

Forward Max Domi shared Berube’s view.

“It’s not his job [to fight] by any means. But I think it sends a message to everyone out there that we’re a strong group that sticks together, a tight-knit group,” Domi explained. “And when you want to go after our best player like that, it doesn’t matter who’s on the ice, someone’s going to jump in. So, it’s a great message for our group and everyone else. And it’s a big part of why we won tonight.”

Now in his first season as Toronto’s head coach, Berube has emphasized a straightforward approach to hockey: playing smart defensively and standing up for teammates. This philosophy was evident earlier in the season when Domi was penalized for roughing after fighting Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Zemgus Girgensons. Domi had stepped in following a hard hit Girgensons delivered to Toronto’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Rielly’s fight with Thompson marked his first in over two years, though it wasn’t his last major penalty of the season. In February, he received a cross-checking major and a game misconduct for hitting Ottawa’s Ridly Greig late in a game against the Senators.

As for how Matthews appreciated it? The player kept his focus on how the club played after it.

“I thought that response in itself was great to see, but I just thought the way we started the game in general, jumping out to a lead right away, it just seemed like we were ready to play,” Matthews said. “So that’s important to get up for these kinds of games. So you kind of know what’s coming and I thought we were really well prepared.