MONTREAL - Montreal hockey fans often leap to their feet to watch a fight on the ice but Monday night at the Bruins game many fans preferred to watch a brutal brawl in the stands.

Some report that the fight started when Canadiens' supporters tired of a group of Boston Bruins fans relentlessly taunting the Habs players.

The fight was caught on video by a nearby fan who described the event on the sports blog 25Stanley.com.

"I saw one guy throw his beer in somebody else's face and that's what started it," said Julie Morency. "He had a big bump on his head like he was being kicked in the head and there was blood."

Boston eventually won the tightly-fought match 1-0 but during the fight, the on-ice attraction become of secondary importance to many.

"Everybody stood up and looked at the fight instead of paying attention to the game itself," said Beth Barron. "It was mayhem, there were like three or four guys just laying punches."

But to others it was less shocking.

"I used to go to the old Canadiens games at the Montreal Forum when Boston was in town and that happened all the time," said hockey fan Ronnie Guarda.

CTV Montreal showed a video of the fight to Montreal forward Max Pacioretty, who in spite of being from New England, was a target of the Bruin fans' vitriol.

"Obviously a game like that's going to be sold out and there's going to be a lot of passionate fans there," said Pacioretty. "So maybe that added a little bit to the fire."

Canadiens defenceman Hal Gill, who once played for Boston, also took the incident in stride.

"I come from Boston where there's a fight in the stands every day. It's something that you're not proud of but those things happen."