Slovakia’s Bartecko in stable condition follwoing mid-ice collision

Slovakian forward Lubos Bartecko is reportedly in stable condition after suffering a head injury when he fell to the ice following an elbow to the head by Norway’s Ole-Kristian Tollefsen in the first period of an Olympic hockey playoff game Tuesday.

A pool of blood was visible under the head of Bartecko when he briefly raised his head after being slammed to the ice; His helmet flew off when he was hit in his blind side by Tollefsen, leaving Bartecko’s head unprotected.

Play was stopped six minutes into the contest as medical staff rushed onto the ice and Bartecko was taken off the ice on a stretcher and examined by doctors at Canada Hockey Place.

He was transferred to a clinic at the Vancouver athletes’ village where he was listed in stable condition by medical staff, a spokesman for the Slovakian team said in a statement.

Bartecko, 33, was a member of the Slovakian squad that won the 2002 world championship and the squad which placed fifth at the 2006 Turin Olympics. He spent five seasons in the National Hockey League from 1997 through 2003.

The game was scoreless at the time of the incident, however, Slovakia had been carrying the play.

Tollefsen, a Detroit Red Wings prospect, was assessed 25 total penalty minutes for the elbow, including a major penalty that gave the Slovakian team an extended power play.

Michal Handzus opened the scoring one minute into the power play and Marian Gaborik made it 2-0 at 9:48 when he redirected a slap pass from Pavol Demitra at the edge of the crease

While Norway made it 2-1 on a late goal by Mats Zuccarello-Aasen, Richard Zednick replied quickly for his team 46 seconds later to make it 3-1 after the first period. Slovakia outshot Norway 21-2.

Norway rebounded in the second period with Tore Vikingstad scoring his fourth goal of the tournament. And in an unlikely twist, the underdog Norwegians tied the game 3-3 with one tenth of a second left in the period when Anders Bastiansen, coming off the halfboards, snapped a shot top corner past Jaroslav Halak.

However, despite giving the Slovakians a scare it wasn’t to be for the underdog Norwegians. Slovakia took the lead for good on a goal by Miroslav Satan and won the game 4-3.

Norway is eliminated from the Olympic hockey tournament while Slovakia will play Sweden in the quarterfinals.

With files from Reuters