Patrice Bergeron’s hockey mentality took over when he took a high stick just below his eye from Carolina Hurricanes star Sebastian Aho late in the second period on Sunday.
Even with blood pouring out of the open wound on his face, the Boston Bruins captain wasn’t trying to leave the ice.
NHL officials did make Bergeron head to the bench, and he ended up missing the final seconds of the second period while the Bruins’ training staff tended to him in the locker room. Following Boston’s 5-2 win in Game 4 at TD Garden, Bergeron explained what exactly was going through his mind as he tried to push through the bloody injury.
“There was blood in there (the eye), so I just couldn’t see,” Bergeron said, per team-provided video. “It was kind of blurry at first and then I realized it was fine. Then, it’s just a cut so you want to get back out there if you can. The ref was saying because they had to blow the whistle because of my injury I couldn’t get back out there.”
Bergeron didn’t miss much of the action as he came back out for the start of the third period. Aho’s penalty on Bergeron did give the Bruins a 5-on-3 power play, which Boston cashed in on courtesy of a Brad Marchand goal just 44 seconds into the final frame.
Bergeron, who scored Boston’s first goal of the game and assisted on David Pastrnak’s third-period tally, really showed his toughness in the win, and he has a nasty cut now under his eye to prove it.
