Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman has responded to some accusations made by Winnipeg Jets forward Cole Perfetti.
Earlier in the week, Perfetti said Hartman admitted to intentionally high-sticking him and that the comment was caught on a microphone Perfetti was wearing.
But in an exclusive interview with Michael Russo of The Athletic, Hartman said he knew Perfetti was wearing a microphone and the Jets forward was baiting him to make the comment all game.
"It's written on the wall that he’s wearing a mic,” Hartman told Russo. “I know he's wearing a mic all game. He comes up to me multiple times and asks me if I did it on purpose. And finally, all I told him was, 'I’m not gonna say it wasn’t on purpose.'
"So I didn’t tell him, 'Hey, I did that on purpose.' He kept coming up to me, and I finally said, 'I’m not gonna say it wasn’t on purpose.' That was the extent of it."
The Wild and Jets played a two-game series over the New Year's Eve weekend that was filled with drama.
That drama began when Jets defenceman Brenden Dillon cross-checked Wild star Kirill Kaprizov in Saturday's game. Dillon was not penalized, but Kaprizov suffered an injury that forced him onto the injured reserve.
Sunday's rematch began with a fight between Jets captain Adam Lowry and Wild tough guy Pat Maroon. Then, shortly after, Hartman high-sticked Perfetti on a faceoff that wasn't penalized, but later led to Hartman being fined.
"He said it in kind of a respectful way. 'No disrespect, nothing against you. It had to happen for what happened to Kaprizov there,'" Perfetti accused Hartman of saying on Tuesday.
In his response, Hartman said he was surprised Perfetti would bring up something that was said on the ice.
“If everything that was said on the ice was released to the media, there’d be a lot of people in this league in trouble,” Hartman said. “I don’t know, I guess we’re in a different day and age where kids talk to people about what’s said on the ice. You’d think things would stay on the ice.”
Hartman also told Russo that the Wild declined to give the Jets permission to share a clip of the exchange between him and Perfetti on social media.
The two border rivals next clash on Feb. 20 in Winnipeg. When asked by Russo if he was worried about the response he will get from Jets fans that night, Hartman simply said, "I couldn't care less."
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