The rivalry between the Panthers and Lightning took a step forward on Saturday night as fights broke out throughout Florida’s 5-1 win with the two teams combining for 31 penalties and 154 penalty minutes.

The 154 combined penalty minutes was the most this season — the crazy Capitals-Rangers game from last week had 141 — but was not the most in a game between the Panthers and Lightning.

In 1998, the two rivals combined for 166 penalty minutes. The Panthers were still playing at Miami Arena back then.

While the Rangers and Capitals went their separate ways after starting that game with a line brawl in response to Tom Wilson’s antics in the previous meeting, the Panthers and Lightning get to do it all over again on Monday night.

Then again, and again.

Monday night, the Panthers and Lightning will wrap up the regular season against one another just two days after one of the most penalized games in either team’s franchise history although both have a long way to go to set any record.

Perhaps that comes Monday.

But probably not.

Florida and Tampa Bay will play each other in the playoffs for the first time with Game 1 starting as early as Friday night.

Home ice in the opening round is on the line Monday night.

The Panthers, which has won their past five games, hold a two-point lead on the Lightning, but due to having more regulation wins, the Lightning would win the tiebreaker if the teams end up tied in the standings.

If the Lightning win in regulation Monday, Game 1 and 2 will be in Tampa; if the Panthers simply get the game to overtime, the series begins in Sunrise.

The Lightning are beat up with various injuries on its blue line (three top guys were held out Saturday) and at least two forwards will miss Monday’s game either due to injury or suspension.

Of course, Tampa Bay is expected to get Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos back for the playoffs, so no tears are being shed for the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Florida, meanwhile, will not be at full strength Monday with coach Joel Quenneville saying Patric Hornqvist, Sam Bennett and Brandon Montour will be out. Carter Verhaeghe will be back after missing the past three weeks.

Chris Driedger will be in net for the Panthers as Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida’s likely Game 1 starter, gets the night off.

THE AFTERMATH

On Sunday, the NHL fined Montour and MacKenzie Weegar $5,000 each and suspended Tampa Bay’s Pat Maroon for Monday’s game.

Maroon went after Montour, pulling away from the officials, during the timeout following Alex Wennberg’s third goal of the night that made it 5-1.

RECORD PENALTIES

Although there were a lot of penalties called Saturday night, it was not close to a league record nor the most penalty minutes in either team’s franchise history.

Florida’s record for combined penalties came in 2001 when the Panthers and Flyers were hit with 214; Tampa Bay and Los Angeles combined for 187 in 1997.

On Saturday, the Panthers were called for 16 penalties for 76 minutes; the franchise record is 24 penalties (Flyers) for 128 minutes. Tampa Bay’s record is 97 penalty minutes in a game against the Penguins in 1998.

The NHL record for most penalty minutes is 419 and came in a game between Ottawa and Philadelphia in 2004.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING AT FLORIDA PANTHERS

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

FLORIDA FORWARDS

23 Carter Verhaeghe — 16 Sasha Barkov — 91 Anthony Duclair

11 Jonathan Huberdeau — 19 Mason Marchment — 74 Owen Tippett

77 Frank Vatrano — 21 Alex Wennberg — 20 Aleksi Heponiemi

94 Ryan Lomberg — 55 Noel Acciari — 14 Grigori Denisenko

FLORIDA DEFENSEMEN

42 Gus Forsling — 52 MacKenzie Weegar

65 Markus Nutivaara — 6 Anton Stralman

3 Keith Yandle — 7 Radko Gudas

FLORIDA GOALIES

60 Chris Driedger

60 Spencer Knight

Scratches: F Eetu Luostarinen, D Matt Kiersted, F Nikita Gusev, D Brandon Montour, F Sam Bennett, F Juho Lammikko, F Lucas Wallmark, G Sergei Bobrovsky

Injured: F Patric Hornqvist (UBI, D2D); D Noah Juulsen (UBI, TBD); D Aaron Ekblad (leg, out another month+)

Taxi squad: D Kevin Connauton, F Cole Schwindt, F Scott Wilson, G Sam Montembeault, G Philippe Desrosiers, D Brady Keeper

Florida power play (38/179 21.2% — 12th in NHL)

Florida penalty kill (124/158 78.5% — 22nd in NHL)

PP1: Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Carter Verhaeghe, Anthony Duclair, Keith Yandle

PP2: Alex Wennberg, Owen Tippett, Frank Vatrano, Grigori Denisenko, MacKenzie Weegar

PROJECTED TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING LINEUP

TAMPA BAY FORWARDS

18 Ondrej Palat — 21 Brayden Point — 60 Alex Barre-Boulet

17 Alex Killorn — 71 Anthony Cirelli  — 79 Ross Colton

46 Gemel Smith — 37 Yanni Gourde — 20 Blake Coleman

75 Daniel Walcott — 9 Tyler Johnson — 7 Mathieu Joseph

TAMPA BAY DEFENSEMEN

98 Mikhail Sergachev — 81 Erik Cernak

3 Fredrik Claesson — 58 David Savard

2 Luke Schenn — 44 Jan Rutta

TAMPA BAY GOALIES

88 Andrei Vasilevskiy

35 Curtis McElhinney

Tampa Bay power play (40/169 23.7% — 6th in NHL)

Florida penalty kill (144/172 83.7% — 5th in NHL)