The Boston Bruins found a way to win another hockey game last night, toppling the New York Islanders 4-3 in a shootout.
It’s Boston’s fourth consecutive win, one that placed Boston in third place in the Atlantic Division. The win itself was thrilling, with the Bruins erasing three separate Islanders’ leads, all en route to Marat Khusnutdinov continuing his breakout with the shootout winner after he tied the game late in the third period.
Still, none of that is what stole the show last night. Instead, a second-period scrum centered around Nikita Zadorov and Matthew Schaefer’s been the talk of the town.
Zadorov took liberties with Schaefer, the Islanders’ superstar rookie, as he threw a good two or three cross-checks not shown prior to this clip beginning.
Schaefer then hung onto Zadorov’s stick, leading to Zadorov clocking him in brutal fashion, with Zadorov ultimately getting three penalties out of the scrum.
Zadorov, when asked about the incident postgame, joked:
“I looked at my penalty minutes from last year, and I needed to get them up.”
Later that night, with Islanders fans steaming mad, Zadorov trolled them even further on his Instagram:
Safe to say, Zadorov’s not making any friends on Long Island. Three weeks from today, the two teams square off once again inside UBS Arena, in what could be another thriller.
As for the Islanders, they were none-too-pleased, with Islanders’ Head Coach Patrick Roy critiquing the final decision made by the officials.
“I felt like the referee had a lot of choices,” Roy told the media. “He could call a cross-check, could have called roughing, could have called interference. We might have been able to have a four-minute power play, isn’t it?”
Still, despite the fun from Zadorov, it should not bury what was another strong win for the Bruins, led by Khusnutdinov. Now, Boston returns home and looks to use the game as a further springboard for success in its upcoming games against the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs, massive early-season divisional matchups.
Ottawa’s in town on Thursday, while Boston makes the trek to Toronto on Saturday, before Toronto returns to Boston on Tuesday.
Hockey News