By René Reyes/DFP Staff

After captain Zdeno Chara’s instigator penalty late in the second period, the rest of Tuesday’s tilt against the Carolina Hurricanes was a blur admitted Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask.

With the Bruins trailing 2-0 at the 14:19 mark, Chara took it quite personally when teammate Nathan Horton was caught in the middle of an altercation near the Carolina net with defenseman Jay Harrison. The 6-foot-9 Chara raced to Horton’s defense and began pummeling the 6-foot-4 Harrison without restraint.

Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward had a few words for Chara during the scrum, and within moments, found himself standing mask-to-mask with Rask, who had skated the length of the ice to ask Ward why he was chirping at Chara.

On top of the instigator call, Chara was given a five-minute fighting major and a 10-minute game misconduct, while Rask was penalized as well for leaving his crease.

"I just saw some engagement," Chara said. "Nathan was involved, and obviously I was trying to stick up for him. So I ran in, and it just happened."

“It was a mistake on my part to skate over there,” Rask said. “That’s what I have to say about that.”

Sixty-one penalty minutes, three game misconducts and four roughing penalties later, and the Bruins (2-4-0) have no one to blame but themselves for their 4-1 loss to the Hurricanes (3-2-1) at TD Garden.

“We have to take responsibility for our own actions here,” said a stone-faced Bruins coach Claude Julien, who was ejected from the game in the final minutes of the third period. “It’s the easy thing to point at everybody. And I think what I saw from tonight is that we start off the game well. In the first period, we had some great chances, but we’re not capitalizing. And what I see is frustration setting in, and the minute we start getting frustrated, we lose focus of our game, and then it gets worse and worse.

“And that’s been a bit of a pattern this year. … And obviously I’m not on the ice to hear or see everything that’s going on as far as the misconducts were concerned, but I think we have to take that responsibility upon ourselves and understand that the referees have a job to do.”

In what has become a common theme for the Stanley Cup champions six games into their title defense, the B’s have been unable to take advantage of their Grade-A chances right off the bat. Julien’s squad has exemplified this current trend in narrow one-goal defeats to the Philadelphia Flyers and Colorado Avalanche.

Last night wasn’t any different, as the Bruins’ frustration only mounted early on after each Ward kick save, each failed conversion around the cage and each ill-advised turnover in the offensive zone.

The Bruins looked to get on the board first, but Ward (33 saves) stymied close-range attempts from Brad Marchand, Rich Peverly and Tyler Seguin in the contest’s opening 45 seconds.

Instead, Carolina jumped out to the quick 1-0 lead on right winger Anthony Stewart’s second goal of the year. Rask (19 saves) made the initial shoulder save on defenseman Joni Pitkanen’s shot from the left dot. Left winger Brett Sutter whiffed on the ensuing rebound, leaving Stewart to tap in the loose puck at 2:47.

Later on in the frame, Sutter leveled B’s defenseman Joe Corvo with a strong hit that sent him flying into the boards. Corvo stayed down on the ice for several minutes and then headed toward the Bruins’ locker room under his own power.

Ward was nothing short of spectacular in the first session, turning aside all 13 shots he faced with an array of glove, chest and stick saves.

“They always come out extremely hard in their own building, and as long as you weather the storm and come up with some big saves, it changes the momentum,” Ward said. “Fortunately, I was able to do that, and we were able to get our feet underneath us and play a much more solid game after that.”

"We had our chances," Peverly said. "We got a lot of chances, but you have to give credit to Cam Ward. He played unbelievable. On our part, we have to do a better job of finding ways to get the puck against him so that's the way to win, especially in the first period."

Pitkanen doubled the Hurricanes’ cushion a little over 10 minutes into the middle period. Collecting a tipped pass from center Tuomo Ruutu, Pitkanen sped down the left boards and through the neutral zone, eventually unleashing a slap shot from the left circle that snuck under Rask’s glove.

Peverly cut the Bruins’ deficit to 2-1 when his wrister near the edge of the right circle beat Ward top shelf with 9:01 remaining in regulation. Peverly’s PP goal snapped an 0-for-22 stretch in which the Bruins hadn’t converted on the man advantage and also signaled the first time the B’s had scored in front of Rask in over six periods.

Seconds later, however, Horton was assessed a double-minor for roughing and a 10-minute game misconduct, Chara a two-minute minor for high sticking and Marchand a 10-minute game misconduct, penalties that quelled any momentum the Bruins may have gained from Peverly’s tally.

Goals by captain Eric Staal and Ruutu on the 5-on-3 advantages at 13:26 and 14:58 of the third period, respectively, secured the victory for the Hurricanes.

“We obviously frustrated them with our play and were in their face and aggressive, and they were trying to get something going,” Staal said. “And when they’re doing what they’re doing, I mean, the refs have no choice but to call penalties when they’re penalties, and we capitalized eventually on the 5-on-3, and it was a big win.”

Tuesday night, the Bruins allowed their emotions to get the best of them.

“It’s a fine line too to go overboard, and it’ll harm your game,” Rask said. “And today it did. I thought we came pretty hard in the third and got that goal and made it a game. But then we shot ourselves in the foot after that, things kind of turned around.

“But it’s hockey. It’s one game, and we just got to learn from these and maybe control our emotions a little more next time.”