Rask Fights, Pastrnak Gets A Gordie Howe Hat Trick
PUBLICATION
MarcOMarch 30, 2018 (11:19)
The Boston Bruins took over the top spot in the Eastern Conference with their spirited 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
The Bruins fought hard against the Lightning, but also hard for themselves and each other.
During the second period, goaltender Tuukka Rask had enough of Tampa Bay crashing the crease and took his frustrations out on Cory Conacher.
"I felt like they were pushing or something, so I just had to let them know I was there because it happened twice," said Rask after the game. "So, I jumped in there and threw a couple punches and that was it."
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While we have seen Rask get emotional in the past, we have never seen David Pastrnak drop the gloves.� That changed in the third period when the young forward went after Dan Girardi following a big hit on Patrice Bergeron.
"You get the goalie involved in anything and the emotions start to go," David Backes said. "But Pasta to defend Bergy a little bit there, he felt a little liberty was taken on him, probably a clean hit but you can't have your better players being taken advantage of like that. Kudos to Pasta for stepping up, fighting a bigger guy who is maybe more used to having his gloves off."
Pastrnak scored his 32nd goal of the season to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead and then had an assist on Brad Marchand's late empty net goal to complete the Gordie Howe hat trick. What a night!
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