EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — New York Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech maintained that his collision with Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad was purely accidental during Tuesday night’s game at UBS Arena.
“I’ll just say it was completely unintentional and I hope Mika is OK,” Pelech said on Thursday before the Islanders’ matchup with the Montreal Canadiens. “I felt sick about it because he didn’t look good going down and getting up off the ice. It was completely unintentional and I hope he’s OK.”
Both skaters were in the neutral zone looking down-ice toward the Rangers’ zone. While Pelech skated perpendicularly with the red line at center ice, Zibanejad — whose gaze stayed down-ice — cut toward the Rangers’ bench for a line change. His head and chest made contact with Pelech’s shoulder and elbow.
“I was following the play up the ice, they kind of had the puck and I stopped int eh neutral zone to see what was going on,” Pelech said. “I was looking up the ice the whole time and we collided.”
He left the game momentarily but managed to return toward the end of the Islanders’ 3-2 victory, but that didn’t stop Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette from fuming about the collision.
“He came back at the end from that vicious hit, yeah,” Laviolette said. “That vicious shoulder/elbow to the head. Watch it.”
It was a reaction that Pelech admitted he was “surprised,” to see, and one that head coach Patrick Roy responded to after the Islanders’ victory on Tuesday night.
“I think [referee] Kelly Sutherland was in a really good position to see everything and he made it clear right away that it was accidental,” Roy said. “But sometimes, frustration makes you say things.”
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