Photo credit: Winslow Townson-Imagn Images
Mark Kastelic gave Marco Sturm another jolt after Tanner Jeannot, and Boston turned this game into a street fight in a hurry.
The first scrap already had juice with Jeannot and Erik Gudbranson throwing for a long stretch.
Then only 6 seconds later, Kastelic and Mathieu Olivier picked it right back up.
That second fight is the real story now because the game is still going.
This was not late garbage-time nonsense after a settled result. It was a live push for momentum while both benches were still trying to grab the night.
Boston does not dress Kastelic for quiet minutes.
He came into this game with 133 penalty minutes in 73 games, so when the temperature rises, his role gets loud fast.
He has also put up 18 points, which matters because Sturm is not just sending out a pure enforcer.
Kastelic can still take regular bottom-six shifts and keep the line moving north.
Olivier was the right answer from the Columbus side.
He has 96 penalty minutes and 26 points in 60 games, so Rick Bowness knows exactly what he is putting over the boards when a game starts boiling over.
That is what made the sequence hit so hard.
Jeannot and Gudbranson set the tone, then Kastelic and Olivier made sure nobody on either bench could pretend it was over.
Boston and Columbus just changed the game script
This is bigger than two clips for social media.
Boston got a message shift from Jeannot, then another one from Kastelic, and that tells you Sturm wanted his club leaning into contact instead of backing away from it.
Jeannot brought his own edge into the night with 61 penalty minutes and 21 points in 69 games.
That makes him the kind of winger who can drag a game off the rails without becoming a dead shift.
Gudbranson's numbers look quieter on paper at 12 penalty minutes and 3 points in 28 games.
But the response still fit because Columbus needed one of its veterans on the blue line to answer the first challenge.
Then Olivier took over that job on the next whistle.
His scrap with Kastelic made it clear Columbus was not going to let Boston own the emotional part of the game.
That matters while the scoreboard is still unsettled.
Once you get back-to-back fights 6 seconds apart, every forecheck, every whistle, and every bench decision starts carrying more weight.
So this article is not about who won on the card.
It is about Boston pushing one style through Jeannot and Kastelic, and Columbus answering through Gudbranson and Olivier before the final horn even gets a say.
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