BOSTON — Mark Kastelic announced his return to the Boston Bruins lineup Thursday night against the Utah Hockey Club with authority following a one-game absence due to injury.
He did so by wielding his fists.
The Bruins forward dropped the gloves twice with Utah defenseman Robert Bortuzzo in Boston’s 1-0 win at TD Garden. Kastelic didn’t let on that he had anything personal against Bortuzzo, instead just wanting to be the physical presence the Bruins need on the ice.
“Just from playing hard,” Kastelic said. “The first one just happened and the second one was just being passionate about the game and not trying to let anybody push me around. So, I think that’s why you kind of saw that.”
Kastelic, who stands at 6-foot-4 and 226 pounds, and Bortuzzo first tangled just 6:17 into the first period. Bortuzzo jumped over the boards and grabbed Kastelic and the two threw a couple of blows back-and-forth before falling to the ice.
Kastelic decisively won the second bout, though, as he showed more passion than in the first fight. He pummeled Bortuzzo midway through the second period with a flurry of right-handed haymakers and dropped the 6-foot-4, 206-pound veteran defenseman to the ice to the delight of the hometown crowd.
“Sometimes it’s more technical, sometimes it’s just a little bit more rage, whatever you call it,” Kastelic said. “That time I was a little bit angry, but that’s just a part of it.”
The two do have a little bit of history together. They were called for matching roughing penalties on each other when the Bruins made their inaugural trip out to Utah a month ago. But Kastelic said that didn’t play a factor in their latest encounters.
“I wasn’t even thinking about that,” Kastelic said. “He plays hard over there and I respect it. But at the same time, I think those situations just arise when two guys play hard like that.”
Kastelic is now up to four fights on the season. His fights against Bortuzzo on Thursday were well-timed. It injected a shot of energy into the Bruins, who came into the contest having lost three straight and having just undergone a coaching change.
“He brought a spark to our group tonight,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco said. “He showed that he was ready to play tonight.”
