Stephen Gionta gets major penalty for spearing Mark Borowiecki (Video)

New Jersey Devils forward Stephen Gionta committed a major, and seemingly painful, penalty Thursday night when he speared Ottawa Senators defenseman Mark Borowiecki.

 Check out the above video of the play where Gionta puts his stick into Borowiecki’s mid-section.

Gionta was given a five-minute major for spearing and a game misconduct. Borowiecki did seem to fall into Gionta to start the scuffle and Gionta took exception to the play. Borowiecki played the entire game for a total of 16:41.

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Tom Gulitti of The Record got reaction from an apologetic Gionta after the game game, a 5-4 shootout win for the Devils where Lee Stempniak scored the winner.

“You saw the replay and that can’t happen,” Gionta said. “First, I apologize to Mark for that play. Obviously, I let my teammates down with it and, luckily, they bailed me out. I just lost my cool and that can’t happen,” he said.

The 32-year-old Gionta has not been suspended in his career, though he could receive a call from the Department of Player Safety for the incident. 

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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