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Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik required lifesaving surgery after severing his carotid artery, his agent told The Associated Press on Monday.

Zednik was listed in stable condition in the intensive care unit at Buffalo General Hospital, and will continue to be evaluated through the day, attending surgeon Sonya Noor said in a statement released by the hospital.
Video: Panthers' Zednik Survives Slash to Throat During Game


Zednik had surgery Sunday night after losing a significant amount of blood during the game at Buffalo earlier in the day, agent David Schatia said.

Zednik was sliced across the right side of the throat by teammate Olli Jokinen's skate in a frightening accident midway through the third period of Buffalo's 5-3 victory.

Canada's Sportsnet cable-TV network reported on its Web site that the skate blade just missed cutting the jugular vein.

The Panthers returned home to South Florida following the game.

Joining Zednik at the hospital was his wife, Jessica, and Karen Cohen, wife of Alan Cohen, who is the Panthers' general partner, chairman of the board and CEO, hospital spokesman Mike Hughes said in a release. The two arrived by charter flight late Sunday night.

"The entire Panthers organization wish to extend their sincere gratitude and appreciation to the medical staff at Buffalo General Hospital, the Buffalo Sabres organization, the HSBC Arena staff and to the Panthers and Sabres fans who have expressed their thoughts and concerns," Panthers assistant general manager Randy Sexton said.

Sexton and Panthers assistant trainer Dave Zenobi stayed overnight with Zednik at the hospital.

Zednik was circling the net behind the play and skating into the corner when Jokinen was upended by Sabres forward Clarke MacArthur. Jokinen fell headfirst to the ice, and his right leg and skate flew up and struck Zednik directly on the side of the neck.

Clutching his neck, Zednik left a trail of blood as he somehow raced three-quarters the length of the ice to the Panthers bench. He nearly fell into the arms of Zenobi, who immediately placed a towel on the player's throat. With the help of defenseman Jassen Cullimore, Zednik was escorted up the tunnel behind the bench and loaded into an ambulance.

Zednik, a 12-year veteran, is in his first season with the Panthers.

When Zednik was with Montreal he sustained a severe concussion, broken nose, bruised throat and cut eyelid following a vicious blow to the face by Boston's Kyle McLaren during the 2002 playoffs.

Zednik was knocked cold, had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher and spent the night in intensive care.

McLaren was suspended by the NHL for the rest of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, missing the final two games of the series, which Montreal won in six games.

Zednik returned the following season to score a career-high 31 goals and match a career high with 50 points.

He signed with the Panthers as a free agent last summer. After a two-month slump, he has been playing well. He entered the game on a four-game point streak, in which he had six goals and three assists, giving him 26 points (15 goals, 11 assists) in 54 games this season.

Labels: Florida Panthers, NHL, Richard Zednik, Slash, Throat

Eric Perrin, Atlanta's fourth shooter, beat Jocelyn Thibault with a fake before scoring in the shootout to give the Thrashers a 5-4 win over Buffalo on Friday night.

Perrin faked to his right before pulling the puck back and shooting past Thibault to the left side of the net, ending the Sabres' three-game winning streak.

Thrashers goalie Johan Hedberg stopped shots by Ales Kotalik, Derek Roy, Clarke MacArthur and Thomas Vanek in the shootout.

Mark Recchi, Bobby Holik, Jim Slater and Tobias Enstrom scored in regulation for Atlanta. Jochen Hecht, Jason Pominville, Daniel Paille and Dmitri Kalinin had the Sabres' goals.

Buffalo led 4-3 but was hurt by two penalties in the last minute of regulation.

MacArthur was called for hooking with 56.4 seconds left, and Tony Lydman drew another penalty for delay of game with 19 seconds left.

With Hedberg pulled, the Thrashers had a three-man advantage that paid off quickly as Enstrom found the net with a long shot from beyond the right circle with 17 seconds left, forcing the overtime.

Buffalo's Ryan Miller gave up two first-period goals but shut out the Thrashers in the second period. Miller stopped 18 shots through two periods but suffered a leg injury in the second period. He left with a 3-2 lead and was replaced by Thibault to start the third period.

Thibault gave up a game-tying goal to Slater 2:25 into the third period, but Kalinin answered with a power-play wrist shot for the Sabres less than 3 minutes later for a 4-3 Buffalo lead.

Hedberg, looking to atone for giving up seven goals in a 10-1 loss to the Sabres in Buffalo on Jan. 18, couldn't hold a 2-0 lead after one period. The Sabres rallied with second-period goals by Hecht, Pominville and Paille.

Hedberg and the Thrashers played strong defense early in their first of at least two games without Ilya Kovalchuk, who hurt his right knee when hit by Pittsburgh's Jarkko Ruutu Wednesday night.

The MRI on Kovalchuk's right knee was negative. He also will miss Atlanta's game at Washington on Saturday but could return Tuesday against Philadelphia.

The Thrashers had another injury scare when their other All-Star, Marian Hossa, was sent crashing hard into the boards behind the Buffalo net by Jaroslav Spacek early in the third period. Hossa left the game but returned later in the period.

Coach Don Waddell asked for balanced scoring, as well as strong defense, to compensate for the temporary loss of Kovalchuk. The Thrashers answered the call with first-period goals by Recchi and Holik.

Notes: The Thrashers improved to 6-4 in shootouts while the Sabres fell to 1-5. ... Slater has two goals in two games after having none in Atlanta's first 52 games. ... Buffalo RW Maxim Afinogenov skated with the team Thursday but missed his 13th straight game with a groin injury. ... RW Drew Stafford was held out with an ankle injury suffered in Buffalo's win at Florida on Wednesday.

Labels: Atlanta Thrashers, Hockey, Hossa, NHL, Thrashers

Marian Hossa scored three goals and Kari Lehtonen made 46 saves to lift the Atlanta Thrashers to a 5-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night.

Hossa scored the Thrashers' first three goals, notching his seventh career hat trick, and the first in nearly a year -- Jan. 16, 2007.

Eric Perrin and Slava Kozlov also scored, while Tobias Enstrom, Ilya Kovalchuk and Mark Recchi each added two assists for Atlanta.

Nicklas Kronwall scored for NHL-leading Detroit, which has lost three straight. Chris Osgood stopped 13 shots before being pulled in favor of Dominik Hasek less than halfway through the game.

Hossa, who has 19 goals, opened the scoring with a power-play goal 7:33 in when he skated out of the corner to the front of the net and beat Osgood.

His second goal came with 5:38 left in the opening period when Hossa stripped the puck from Detroit defenseman Brett Lebda in the Red Wings zone and put a shot between Osgood's torso and arm.

He made it 3-0 just 1:14 into the second period on a wrister from the high slot.

Perrin's power-play goal made it 4-0 at 7:28 and sent Osgood to the bench.

The Thrashers didn't have a shot for the remainder of the period while Detroit took 19 at Lehtonen from that point until the end of the period.

Kronwall foiled Lehtonen's shutout bid with 6:18 left, but Kozlov got his 13th goal with a minute left.

Labels: Atlanta Thrashers, Hockey, Hossa, NHL, Wings

Marian Hossa scored a power-play goal off a feed from Ilya Kovalchuk with 31.5 seconds left in overtime to help the Atlanta Thrashers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 on Wednesday night.

Kovalchuk finished with a goal and three assists for the Thrashers, who earned a needed win and pulled within three points of the Southeast Division-leading Hurricanes. Vyacheslav Kozlov, Mark Recchi and Bobby Holik also scored for Atlanta.

Ray Whitney, Eric Staal and Erik Cole each had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes, who continued their December slide into 2008.

The Thrashers had lost three of four coming in, including Monday at Boston in which they led 2-0 before allowing five unanswered goals. They flirted with another frustrating loss after blowing a 3-1 lead entering the final period as well as a 4-3 lead late in the third.

But Kovalchuk — as he had all night — came up with two key plays to give Atlanta the win. First he stole the puck from Glen Wesley along the boards from behind and drew a hooking penalty to give the Thrashers the man advantage. Then he skated in on the right side before sending a perfect pass to Hossa, who was cutting in on the left and easily beat Cam Ward from just outside the crease for the win.

It was another frustrating performance for the Hurricanes, who lost nine of 15 games in December and saw their once-comfortable division lead shrink. They put together a fierce third-period rally, getting a score from Staal off a rebound and a putaway from Andrew Ladd off a feed from Scott Walker less than 90 seconds later to tie it at 3 at the 9:29 mark.

Then, after Holik scored off a feed from Kovalchuk for the 4-3 lead, Cole managed to tie it by slipping a loose rebound past Johan Hedberg at 15:29 of the third.

The Hurricanes outshot the Thrashers 19-3 in that period and 36-14 for the game, but Hossa's goal improved Atlanta to 11-2 in one-goal games.

Notes:@ Kovalchuk pushed his point streak to four games and has scored at least two points in 16 of his last 33 games. ... Recchi has 12 points in 12 games with Atlanta since being claimed off waivers on Dec. 8. He was a midseason acquisition for Carolina in the 2005-06 season, helping the Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup. ... Hurricanes D Casey Borer — called up Tuesday after Bret Hedican went on injured reserve with a knee injury — played in his first NHL game. ... Rod Brind'Amour's assist on Ladd's goal gave him 1,099 points for his career.

Labels: Atlanta Thrashers, Hockey, NHL