Mitch Marner enjoyed another nice night on Monday against the Winnipeg Jets when he scored his second goal of the season, which proved to be the game winner, and then his 3rd into an empty net. The empty netter wasn’t quite as smooth as it usually would have been, though.
With time close to expiring, Marner found himself alone on the wing with a clean shot at the net. The only other player remotely close was Jets defender Neal Pionk, but not close enough to actually have a shot at stopping Marner’s shot.
Instead of giving it his best shot, Pionk appeared to take the opportunity to throw a hit on Marner. It didn’t go very well, as it ended up being Pionk that tumbled into the boards while Marner remained standing. Regardless, Marner wasn’t happy with the hit attempt and turned to chirp Pionk, something that Mark Scheifele apparently took exception to.
Following the game, you’d expect the players to have some opinions on the fireworks to end the game. While that may be true, Marner wasn’t about to share them. He simply deflected the question, explaining that they’d won the game, and that’s what really matters to him.
These two teams don’t face each other again until March 9th, so that may be enough time to let tempers simmer a little. Then again, maybe not.
(H/T Mark Masters)
