RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Aaron Ekblad shrugged it off. Paul Maurice called it “somebody else’s problem,” while casually taking a drink from a cup.
Roughly 12 hours had passed since Florida’s Brad Marchand and Carolina’s Shayne Gostisbehere locked up in a punch-throwing tussle during the Panthers’ Game 1 win in the Eastern Conference final, ending with Marchand being escorted to the locker room tunnel while barking back toward center ice.
It was part of a testy third-period sequence in which Marchand made a run at Gostisbehere along the boards and Gostisbehere retaliated by firing a puck directly into Marchand from his own blue line.
The reigning Stanley Cup champion Panthers said all the right things Wednesday in turning down the temperature from that scrap.
“I mean, it happens, it is what it is,” said Ekblad, the defenseman who scored the second of Florida’s two tone-setting first-period goals.
It’s unclear if that mood will last through the puck drop for Thursday’s Game 2 of the best-of-seven series, though.
“Maybe, I don’t know,” Carolina forward Seth Jarvis said. “I’m sure it’ll be just as physical as it was. We’ve seen a lot of each other the last couple of years. I mean, it’s playoffs now. Everyone’s battling. But I don’t see anything too extra coming out of it.”
The Panthers won 5-2 on Tuesday night to open the rematch of the 2023 conference final swept by Florida with four one-goal wins, including a four-overtime epic. They had clinched their third straight trip to the conference final by winning a Game 7 in Toronto only two days earlier and visited a team that was 5-0 at home in the playoffs but never trailed and continued their postseason mastery of Carolina.
It marked their sixth road win of the playoffs with a performance showing off Florida’s championship mettle. Yet it also stood out for the third-period scrap between Marchand — long known as a talented player with a knack for agitation before his trade-deadline arrival from Boston — and Gostisbehere in a 4-1 game.
Gostisbehere intentionally shooting the puck at Marchand far from the net was reminiscent of Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson doing a similar thing to Anaheim’s Scott Niedermayer at the end of the second period of Game 4 of the 2007 Stanley Cup Final with the score tied at 2. That incited a scrum, in which Alfredsson sucker-punched Travis Moen.
The Ducks went on to win that night 3-2, then in Game 5 to hoist the Cup.
This sequence began with Marchand trying to hit Gostisbehere along the boards with about 12 minutes left after the Carolina defenseman had gotten rid of the puck. Andrei Svechnikov soon sent it back to a trailing Gostisbehere as Carolina started to clear the zone, and Gostisbehere found Marchand skating directly in front of him.
So he fired a shot from his own blue line, sending the puck into Marchand’s left elbow.
The two immediately locked up, first by crossing high sticks and then flailing about while throwing punches and grabs at each other with Marchand having dropped gloves but Gostisbehere still wearing his. By the time officials separated the two, they were down on the ice, and Marchand made a brief stop in the penalty box for double-minor roughing penalties before being sent off with a game-misconduct penalty.
Marchand didn’t talk to reporters afterward nor Wednesday, leaving Gostisbehere — assessed a two-minute roughing penalty — to describe a “just heated” exchange.
“I was pretty (ticked) off,” Gostisbehere said. “He tried to take a run at me. I shot the puck at him. It is what it is. Had a little tuffle.”
Asked for his impression of the incident afterward, Maurice demurred by saying, “Yeah, I’ve got one, I’m keeping that to myself,” then offered nothing more Wednesday.
Ekblad, meanwhile, sounded almost casual when asked his thoughts about a player firing a puck at another.
“I mean, we block shots all the time, so what’s the difference?” Ekblad said, prompting laughter from reporters.
“Intent?” the reporter asked.
“Intent or not,” Ekblad said, “it hurts the same.”
Still, the ending indicated the incident wasn’t so easily dismissed for the Panthers. In the final seconds, forward Jonah Gadjovich skated over as Gostisbehere played the puck a final time to deliver a bump and a few words, followed by linemate A.J. Greer skating in with a harder shove.
That had officials stepping in a final time after the horn to intervene in a shove-filled gathering between Gadjovich and Carolina’s Jesperi Kotkaniemi, with Greer and Hurricanes rookie defenseman Scott Morrow on the periphery.
It could offer a reminder to the Hurricanes to avoid unnecessary scraps when it’s hard enough just to beat the reigning Cup champs. That lesson was available early when top-line center Sebastian Aho being called for a first-period retaliation penalty after being popped twice by Florida’s Anton Lundell, a call that set up Florida’s power-play scoring start.
“Retaliation penalties are not going to get it done,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “So you know you’re going to have a lot of opportunities to retaliate and you just can’t. We did a pretty good job with it, but it just takes one. That’s my point. You can’t have that one because that really puts you behind the game, and now it’s different.
“It’s understanding that and I think finding a way not to let that get to you. … You know, stick to what is gonna win us games.”
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AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.
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