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New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy unleashed a verbal attack on Dallas Stars forward Mikko Rantanen after he was ejected for a hit on Alex Romanov that sent the defenseman violently crashing into the boards during Tuesday night’s game.
Rantanen, the Stars’ leading scorer with 27 points, hit Romanov from behind, which sent him crashing headfirst into the boards in the final minute of regulation. Rantanen was given a 5-minute major for boarding and ejected from the game.
But as Rantanen exited the rink between the benches, the broadcast picked up Roy’s verbal attack on the NHL player.
“You’re not gonna f—ing finish that game,” he could be heard saying, seemingly in reference to the two teams’ next matchup in New York.
Although calmer after the game, Roy continued to call out the hit.
“I hope he’s going to be okay. At this moment I don’t know exactly what it is,” Roy told reporters about Romanov.
“But all I’m going to say is, when you see the number, you have to lay off. Everybody knows that. You don’t go through the guy. And I’m proud of the way our guys handled it afterwards. No one was happy to see someone get hurt like this. Like I said, to me, it’s disrespectful for our guy.
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“That should not be part of our game,” he added.
Romanov did not go to the hospital, but his immediate condition was unknown. The NHL Department of Player Safety will review the hit, but according to The Dallas Morning News, Rantanen is not expected to face further discipline.
Stars coach Glen Gulutzan defended Rantanen after the game, saying that he believed the forward’s skate was clipped by Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield, causing him to make contact with Romanov.
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“It’s just one of those hockey plays that happened. I hope Romanov is OK,” he said. “It’s a dangerous play for everybody.”
The tense game ended in a 3-2 victory for New York after Wyatt Johnston’s would-be game-tying goal with 0.1 seconds remaining was waved off for goalie interference.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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