Bruins forward has rare fight after Panther hits David Pastrnak

BOSTON – With two of their best players missing, the Florida Panthers appeared intent on knocking the Bruins out of the game by going after David Pastrnak, leading to another bad stretch for the two rivals.

Former Bruin AJ Greer, battling Mark Kastelic in the opening game, hit Pastrnak from behind on the left wing board in the Panthers zone. As Pastrnak went to the bench bleeding from his nose, Pavel grabbed Zacha Greer and started swinging.

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According to HockeyFights.com, Zacha had only had one previous NHL fight – coincidentally against his current teammate Nikita Zadorov almost exactly six years ago – but took a few glancing blows before sending Greer to the ice.

After Pastrnak returned, he hit Sam Reinhart on open ice, earning him an interference penalty. Nate Schmidt pushed Pastrnak and Brad Marchand jumped in to take on Schmidt. It was reminiscent of Marchand leapfrogging Montreal's Rem Pitlick to score a late strike on Patrice Bergeron.

Marchand landed a punch, wrestled Schmid to the ground and pounced on him there, but both players were dealt only rough minors.