Bruins’ Maroon: Tkachuk fought dirty vs. Pastrnak

BOSTON — Boston Bruins forward Pat Maroon believes Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk fought “dirty” during his much-discussed brawl with Bruins winger David Pastrnak in Game 2.

With the Panthers leading 6-1 on Wednesday night, Pastrnak and Tkachuk dropped the gloves in a rare fight between two superstar players and former finalists for NHL MVP honors.

Maroon felt that Tkachuk broke a fighting code by delivering a few punches to Pastrnak after the Bruins winger had fallen to the ice.

“Obviously I don’t like how he hit him on the ground twice. I think that’s dirty,” the veteran winger said. “It’s the game within the game, but I don’t like the aftermath of it.”

Maroon said that he’d be careful about exacting retribution against Tkachuk and that it likely would not be through another fight.

“I mean, Tkachuk’s not going to fight me. If I go out there and take a dumb penalty and they got a power play, my job’s not accomplished. So can’t look at it like that. I just got to take numbers,” he said. “I mean listen, let’s be realistic: I’m probably never playing against Tkachuk anyway.”

Panthers coach Paul Maurice said he didn’t believe Tkachuk did anything over the line in the fight. “Did you guys see it more than once?” he asked during his pregame news conference Friday ahead of Game 3. “It you watch it a bunch of times, I would say the answer would be ‘no.'”

Two days after the fight, both locker rooms were still buzzing about Pastrnak and Tkachuk throwing down.

“I mean, it was pretty awesome. Anytime you see two big-time players going at it, especially in the playoffs, it’s a lot of fun. It shows two good competitors going at it, and I think it’s really good for the game,” Panthers winger Carter Verhaeghe said.

Maroon remained impressed that Pastrnak took the fight. “I think Pasta did a good job. That’s what leaders do. He stood up for the team. He took charge. You got to love that kind of stuff out of your leader,” he said.

Game 2 was a chaotic one between the playoff rivals, with a combined 148 penalty minutes, including 12 misconduct penalties. It also produced its share of memorable moments, from the Tkachuk fight to Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour giving Bruins star Brad Marchand a taste of his own medicine.

In the 2018 playoffs, Marchand tried to agitate his opponents by licking the face of Tampa Bay’s Ryan Callahan and the neck of Toronto’s Leo Komarov. The NHL reached out to the Bruins and Marchand to say the behavior was “unacceptable” and could lead to supplemental discipline.

In Game 2, as Marchand and Montour were in a scrum, the Panthers defenseman make a licking motion at the Bruins forward.

“It was the heat of the game, I guess. Honestly, it wasn’t really planned or thought out. He was in my face,” Montour told ESPN.

Montour said he was aware that the moment went viral after the game.

“I got a lot of texts with the licking emoji and whatnot,” he said. “When [Marchand does] those things, you have to kind of take the joke, I guess. Maybe for the rest of his career.”

Game 3 is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday in Boston.