Los Angeles Kings forward Blake Lizotte has been suspended for one game for a cross-check on Winnipeg Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey at Crypto.Com Arena on Saturday.
The act in question left the Jets' blueliner needing 17 stitches to repair a gnarly gash on his chin.
The play was the result of a lengthy battle between the two combatants, who worked their way up the ice on Saturday afternoon.
“I don’t think he’s skating around out there looking to cross-check guys in the face, but it happened," Morrissey said post-game. "It hurts a lot and I needed to get off the ice. It was a careless play. I thought we were going to go and I took a cross-check to the chin. It could have been my teeth, so thankfully not.”
Morrissey started the scuffle as his shoulder grazed Lizotte's cheek as he jockeyed for position in a race out of his zone. The 25-year-old forward then retaliated with a swift slash to the upper chest region of the Jets' defender. Morrissey snapped his head back as if to sell the apparent high stick.
That didn't seem to fool the on-ice officiating crew, who let the two continue to duke it out as they made their way towards the red line. Morrissey responded to the errant stick with a hefty swing of his own. He caught Lizotte in the back of the calf before turning toward his bench in hopes of making a change.
But it was that swing to which Lizotte took serious exception. He took a full turn out of his zone and skated up to Morrissey along the Jets' bench as if to engage in the fisticuffs.
Morrissey's gloves hit the ice a split second before Lizotte jumped in the air and delivered a heavy cross-check to the chin of the Jets' alternate captain. He crumpled to the ice as blood poured from his face.
Mason Appleton, who was also in the process of making a change, accosted the culprit until officials could wrestle the two apart. Lizotte was handed a five-minute major for cross-checking and a match penalty on the play.
“We were kind of going at it up the ice, he hooked me, I slashed him for sure and then he turned around and looked at me and skated in my direction,” Morrissey recalled. “I said ‘Let’s go,’ and dropped my gloves and got his stick up in my face.”
Following his hearing with George Parros and the NHL's Department of Player Safety, Lizotte will sit for one game as a result of his suspension. He is eligible to return on Tuesday, when the Kings visit Calgary in hopes of continuing their 11-game point streak.