It was all going well in the match between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins until the Flyers’ Garnet Hathaway hit the ice. Literally. Moments after Hathaway had landed a rather hard hit on Noel Acciari, Boko Imama caught the former off guard, and the interference caused Hathaway’s head to bounce off the ice.

And while Hathaway had to be escorted to the locker room, the unhappiest person in the arena, by a mile, was the Philadelphia Head Coach John Tortorella. A B/R Open Ice video shows the coach reacting furiously after learning that Imama received only a two-minute minor penalty, after initially being booked for a 5-minute major, for the interference that appeared to injure Hathaway seriously. After the game, Tortorella stated, “I don’t think a player is trying to injure another player. I’m certainly not going to accuse him of that…but it’s a cheap, dangerous hit.”

Although he hasn’t been making any waves with his goal-scoring this season with just 8 goals in 60 games, he leads his team in hits (214). On top of that, he might just have to wait a little longer to make his 600th appearance in the NHL. And as if things were already bad with the winger’s mid-game injury, the Flyers didn’t really manage to end the match on a high note either. 

Garnet Hathaway’s Flyers lost against Imama’s Pittsburgh Penguins

NHL fans witnessed the Battle of Pennsylvania again as the rivalry between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins is not new to the hockey world. The 4-4 score led to overtime, and Evgeni Malkin’s goal at 1:03 of overtime led the Pittsburgh Penguins to beat Garnet Hathaway’s Flyers 5-4 win, thus ending the Flyers’ three-game winning streak. 

Imama’s nasty hit and the power play that followed it led the Flyers’ Matvei Michkov to lodge the puck into the Penguins’ net for the second time in the night, extending the Flyers’ lead to 4-2. Moments later, however, the deficit was reduced to 4-3 thanks to Erik Karlsson’s second goal of the night. Philip Tomasino also scored while Sidney Crosby ended the game with an assist. Things, however, didn’t look so great for the Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic who allowed three goals on 15 shots and was yanked off for the second time in three starts and Joel Blomqvist was sent in as relief.

The victory saw the Pittsburgh Penguins bounce back from a four-game losing streak and a 6-1 loss against Garnet Hathaway Flyers. But what do you think about Boko Imama’s interference? Do you it was fair to let him get away with a minor 2-minute penalty, or should he have been dealt with in a harsher fashion? Do you think the results would have been different for the Flyers had Hathaway not been injured? Let us know in the comments.