Lucic

BOSTON — Tempers were flaring and his team had already racked up 21 minutes of penalties through just a little more than 28 minutes of game time.

Winger Milan Lucic had been responsible for four of those penalty minutes with a pair of roughing calls. So when he spun through the neutral zone and long-time nemesis Mike Komisarek stepped up at the Canadiens’ blue line and threw a hit that caught Lucic in the numbers, it wasn’t surprising to  see the second-year winger snapped a bit.

Lucic chased the Montreal defenseman deep into the Habs’ zone — where Boston tough guy Shawn Thornton had already gone after Komisarek. When Lucic got near his target, he wrapped his arms around Komisarek’s face from behind and scored a takedown. Not much ensued after that and Komisarek seemed to avoid injury. But whether Lucic avoids suspension will be determined by how much NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell is willing to chalk it up to heat-of-the-moment and also accept Lucic’s admittance of wrongdoing after the Bruins’ 5-4 overtime win tonight at TD Banknorth Garden.

“Not much,” Lucic said when asked what he was thinking during his pursuit of Komisarek. “I mean, looking back, maybe I shouldn’t have went to that extreme. Maybe I lost my temper a little bit. But it’s part of the game and it happens.”

The Bruins totaled 41 penalty minutes in the game, but just two occured in the final 20 minutes plus overtime. Boston killed off that one Montreal power play late in the third and early in overtime and then finished off the Habs on Mark Recchi’s goal.

“It got a little emotional there but I think we did a good job of keeping our cool,” said Lucic. “And I think we refocused and did what we needed to do to get back out there and get the win because that was the most important thing for tonight. And I think we played hard and we stuck up for one another and we got two points out of it.”