MONTREAL — For two games and two periods, the Stanley Cup playoff series between the Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals was controlled chaos.

As the second period of Friday’s Game 3 ended, “control” went out the window, and a scrum between several players from both teams spilled into the benches.

Washington’s coaching staff was inches away from the action. Linesman Kyle Flemington, at one point, was nearly toppled over the bench by Washington’s Tom Wilson and Montreal’s Josh Anderson, who were the principal antagonists in the whole ordeal but not the only players involved.

Wilson and Anderson are of a type: big, physical, speedy wingers with a penchant for toeing the line and, at times, crossing it. They’d been circling each other at times during Games 1 and 2. Wilson was captured by TV cameras mocking the Canadiens by pretending to cry.

After the game, Anderson was a bit more stoic.

“I’m not going to really get into it, to be honest with you,” he said. “Two guys trying to defend their teammates. Obviously it escalated. But it’s playoffs. I think guys will do anything for their teams out there. It is what it is.”

Both received 10-minute misconducts and roughing minors. Each team also had one other player — Lars Eller for Washington, Arber Xhekaj for Montreal — take a two-minute minor. Xhekaj, a physical defenseman who didn’t play in Games 1 or 2, was seen mixing it up with the Caps ahead of Game 3. The original scuffle was between him and Wilson; Anderson swooped in, and things escalated.

“I mean that’s just kind of a bro code on the team,” Xhekaj said. “That’s how he plays, that’s how I play.”

Adding to the surreality of the scene: Capitals coach Spencer Carbery had more than a front-row seat. He was quite nearly an unwilling participant.

After the game, Carbery was offered a chance at bringing some levity to a fairly dour news conference — the Caps wound up losing 6-3 — and he took it.

“I was on my way to walk across the ice, because you have to walk across at the Bell Centre,” Carbery said with a smile on his face. “Then I had to reverse my course and head back, because there was two large individuals coming through the door that I was trying to exit.”

(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)