Bruins coach Jim Montgomery didn’t agree with the referee’s call on David Pastrnak less than a minute into overtime, but he understood why they called it in Boston’s 2-1 loss to the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday.
Clayton Keller was starting to carry the puck out of the Utah zone when Pastrnak skated up to challenge him. As Keller cut to move around him, Pastrnak turned to skate with the Utah captain, but his stick got caught in the defenseman’s skates. Keller fell and the referee’s arm went up.
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Utah worked the puck around for about 30 seconds before Pavel Zacha touched it to get the whistle with 4:18 left. The infraction wasn’t intentional but intent doesn’t matter. Keller did trip over Pastrnak’s stick sending the Bruins’ sniper to the box and Utah to the power play.
“I understand from the ref’s viewpoint why they would make that call. I thought he tried to jump over Pasta’s stick,” Montgomery said. “It wasn’t Pasta’s stick that tripped him. Of course, I’m going to see it the way I want to see it.”
The Bruins managed to kill the two minutes, but four seconds after Pastrak came out of the box, Michael Kesselring scored the game-winner.
“The referees? They did their job. We need to be better,” Montgomery said. “I’m more concerned about our team play.”
Bruins captain Brad Marchand was a little surprised it was called at the moment.
“Usually in overtime, they call stuff on chances and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, it was a trip. We killed it off, but it’s unfortunate,” he said. “Pasta’s just turning up the ice and his stick kind of gets caught. Those things happen. … That’s part of the game. They’re doing their best out there. Whether they get it right or wrong, it doesn’t change anything now.”
