Why Jets Captain Chose To Fight Bruins Defenseman Nikita Zadorov

It was a night to forget for the Bruins, but they made sure to leave Canada Life Centre fighting.

The Winnipeg Jets coasted by Boston with an 8-1 win Tuesday. The B’s gave up five goals in the third period and the only fight shown was literal brawls on the ice.

Trent Frederic dropped a young Jets center with one punch, and Nikita Zadorov took on Winnipeg captain Adam Lowry. It was an interesting move for Lowry to challenge the Bruins blueliner, especially since the game was out of hand. But there wasn’t much hesitation from the 31-year-old.

“You see one of your teammates go down and obviously I wasn’t thrilled with how it happened. I think you answer the bell,” Lowry told reporters, per Carter Brooks of The Hockey News. “You go down and go after arguably their toughest guy and then hopefully all the other stuff goes by the wayside. It’s a competitive game. If we’re in that position, we don’t like to lose. I don’t blame them. What happened, it’s kind of the nature of competitive sports. You just kind of go out there, let your teammates know you got their back. That was my thinking. My line was trying to kill me, though. Sometimes you got to do what you got to do.”

Zadorov took Lowry down on the ice after a swing exchange. However, Boston wasn’t interested in moral victories after Tuesday’s loss and will look to rebound Thursday when it takes on the Seattle Kraken.