The second-round series between the Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild was always destined to be a bit of a slugfest, and it’s delivering the goods.
However, after Game 4 — which the Avs won 5-2 to take a 3-1 series lead — the intensity has boiled over off the ice, and it’s all thanks to a butt-ending incident that earned Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson a four-minute minor.
In the first period, Wild forward Michael McCarron checked Manson hard and wound up falling on top of him. The two wrestled for a little before Manson could be seen striking McCarron in the side of the head with the butt-end of his stick.
McCarron went down in pain, and upon review, Manson was dealt a double-minor for butt-ending.
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The Wild scored on the ensuing power play, and McCarron laid into Manson during an intermission interview with ESPN.
After the game, McCarron continued to criticize Manson’s brand of play.
“I blew him up, and he grabbed me and pulled me on top of him,” he said. “He took his butt end and clearly butt-ended me in the face. I don’t know how it’s not a five-minute. I think the rulebook says it’s a five-minute if you butt-end someone in the face.”
According to Sportsnet, Manson claimed that he simply lost awareness of where his hand was on his stick when he took a swing at McCarron, whom he said he was angry at for falling on him.
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“My intention wasn’t to butt-end him. Did I want to punch him in the head? I did want to punch him in the head,” Manson said.
The series shifts back to Denver for Game 5, and something tells me we probably haven’t seen the last of this one.
However, Minnesota is in quite a hole, so keeping their postseason alive should be at the front of their mind, not getting back at Josh Manson.
But, no matter how you want to look at it, the heat is certainly getting turned up in this one.
