Bertuzzi said he was responding to Clutterbuck’s crosscheck.

“I was skating to the bench and he kind of pushed me,” Bertuzzi said. “It was heat of the moment. I just turned and slashed. I don’t think it deserved a five, but I think it deserved a two-minute penalty.

“It was more or less just sticking up for myself and not taking stuff from anyone. I’m a young guy in the league. It was heat of the moment. I regret it, but at the end of the day, I don’t think it was a five-minute penalty.”

Teammates likewise decried the length of the penalty.

“I was right in front of it,” Anthony Mantha said. “Obviously Clutterbuck tries to crosscheck Bert, Bert turns around and I think the linesman thought it was harder maybe than what it actually was.”

Henrik Zetterberg said “it better be really, really serious if you’re going to call a five-minute on that. That’s a tough call to take even though we probably should have figured out how to kill a little bit better.”

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