Marchand lick ticks off another foe
BRUINS NOTEBOOK
For the second time in the Stanley Cup playoffs Bruins left wing Brad Marchand used an opponent’s face for a tongue depressor.
Marchand’s first victim was Toronto defenseman Leo Komarov, who was not amused by the incident. Marchand took it up a notch last night when he licked Tampa Bay right wing Ryan Callahan after delivering a devastating hit in the second period of the Bruins’ 4-3 overtime loss at the Garden.
Marchand later justified his action by saying that Callahan struck him in the face four times. Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper was both irate and bewildered by Marchand’s actions.
“There is absolutely no place in our game for that,” Cooper said. “I don’t get it, I don’t understand it.”
Cooper already was angry with Marchand because he delivered a hit on Bolts defenseman Dan Girardi in Game 3. Marchand came in low and knocked Girardi for a loop in front of the Lightning bench.
Captain’s corner
The game was halted for a TV timeout following Marchand’s hit on Callahan and subsequent pushing and shoving encounter with Tampa Bay center Cedric Paquette in front of the Bruins bench.
During the timeout, referees Kevin Pollock and Francois St. Laurent summoned the two captains, Zdeno Chara and Steven Stamkos, to a private discussion at center ice on the neutral side. The powwow lasted about two minutes and both captains were dismissed to deliver the message to their respective benches.
“We are there to wait for the explanations most of the time,” Chara said. “We present our views and the referees get together and make calls and that’s about it.”
Super special
The Bruins special teams allowed them to recover from an early deficit and produced their first lead since Game 1 of the series. The B’s got a power play and shorthanded goal from Patrice Bergeron, the latter givinf them a 3-2 at 6:36 of the third period.
The Bruins’ first power play unit scored at 15:28 of the first after Tampa had jumped to a 2-0 lead. Torey Krug unloaded a slap shot from the blue line into the crowd in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy. Rick Nash deflected the puck high and to his left.
Pastrnak beat Anton Stralman to the hanging curveball and swatted it into the exposed half of Tampa cage at 15:28. The goal was Pastrnak’s sixth of the playoffs. The Bruins were 2-for-4 on the power play in the game and are 11of-30 in the postseason.
Twisted Torey
The Bruins defense suffered a huge setback with 7:30 to play in the third when Tampa’s Alex Killorn drove Krug into the end boards while he was spread eagle on the ice.
Krug limped off the ice and was helped down the runway. His status for tomorrow’s game at Amalie Arena was uncertain following the game.
“He went into the boards,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Killorn kind of had his stick wrapped around him so I don’t think there was anywhere he could go except into the boards and he obviously lost his footing from there.
“Lower body injury and he will be evaluated further and he obviously didn’t finish the game so that is never great.”