Maroon gets hat trick, fights Chara; Oilers beat Bruins
BOSTON — Patrick Maroon interrupted his scoring onslaught to accept an invitation to fight 6-foot-9 Bruins defenceman Zdeno Chara.
“‘Z’ asked me to go. I respect ‘Z.’ I said, ‘Yeah,’” Maroon said on Thursday night after scoring his first career hat trick to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 victory over Boston.
“He’s a big man. I really don’t enjoy doing it. You kind of face it. I kind of knew going in there I wasn’t going to come out with a ‘W’ so I just kind of show up.”
Chara might have gotten the better of Maroon in the first-period fight, landing at least two solid hits to the head, but the 6-foot-3 Oilers forward won the scoring battle. He scored 68 seconds into the game, added another in the middle of the second and then made it 4-2 with nine minutes to play.