Bruins’ David Pastrnak ‘Not Afraid’ Of Matthew Tkachuk

With Game 2 completely out of hand, David Pastrnak accepted Matthew Tkachuk’s challenge to drop the gloves at 12:42 of the third period.

The two stars had a discussion at the end of their shifts as they skated toward their respective benches. As soon as their skates hit the ice, Pastrnak and Tkachuk dropped the gloves and went toe-to-toe.

The Bruins were down 6-1, and by the time Pastrnak fought Tkachuk, there had been 10 ejections between the two teams.

“Definitely for the team,” Pastrnak said of the fight, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “He was asking me (to go) so I felt like (I had) to step up. The game was over; it was 6-1, so I gave it a go. He got what he wanted.”

Pastrnak landed a couple of swings before he lost his footing and Tkachuk took him down. While Pastrnak was face down on the ice, Tkachuk took a couple of liberties to the back of the Bruins forward’s head.

“You’re in the game. It’s a lot of emotions,” Pastrnak said. “I mean, I’m not afraid of him, to be honest. I can take a punch, and I would do anything for these guys here.”

Both Pastrnak and Tkachuk were charged with game misconducts following the fight.

The clip of Pastrnak talking to Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery on the bench looks as though the forward was asking permission to fight Tkachuk but both Pastrnak and Montgomery denied it.

Even if Pastrnak didn’t ask permission, Montgomery was still pleased with his player.

“What I’m really proud of, I’m proud of Pasta,” Montgomery said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “There’s so many guys out there pushing after the whistle and the linesmen are there. Pasta and Tkachuk — they just went out there and fought. That’s what you like. You like your hockey players to be competitors.”

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The Panthers went on to win the game and even the series at 1-1, but Montgomery doesn’t think there would be any spillover of the fights into Game 3 when the Bruins host the Panthers at TD Garden on Friday night.

“This is two teams that are rivals,” Montgomery said. “We played each other last year, playing each other this year. It’s gonna be a series.”

The Bruins will look to take control of the series with the next two games in Boston. Even though the games will not be broadcast on NESN, you can still tune in for an hour of pre- and postgame coverage on NESN+.