Tragedy was really close here… Winnipeg hockey player Morgan Barron fell in the opening game of the 1st round of the NHL playoffs during a scrum in the goal area with his face on the moving blade of Vegas goalie Laurent Brossoit’s skate. It is almost a miracle that the knife did not hit the twenty-four-year-old assailant in the eyes or otherwise cut him.
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Editing of the Vegas – Winnipeg match including the situation from which Morgan Barron miraculously escaped without injury | Video: Associated Press
Midway through the opening period at the Las Vegas Arena, Winnipeg had a huge chance to break a scoreless tie.
Barron found a return pass between the circles, fired, but Brossoit in the slide pushed the puck with concrete – but directly to Mason Appleton. He could have easily scored into the open goal, but the puck skidded off his blade, stopped against the post, and a huge melee began.
The players of Winnipeg tried to push the puck over the line, the opponent tried to prevent them from doing so, even goalkeeper Brossoit jumped headfirst into the ball of bodies and fencing hockey sticks.
His skate then flew into the air just as the defenseman shoved Barron so that he fell face first onto her blade.
It looked like it even got under the plexiglass label of his helmet, and from the footage it seems almost unbelievable that it didn’t hit Barron’s eyes or otherwise cut him…
The Winnipeg forward left the collision slightly shaken but uninjured.
In this situation, the Vegas hockey players defended a clean sheet, but in the end they fell in front of their own fans 1:5, and the Jets took the lead in the four-game winning streak.
Kyle Connor and Pierre-Luc Dubois gave Winnipeg a 2-0 lead in 62 seconds at the beginning of the second period. Vegas was reduced by William Karlsson’s shot, but at the beginning of the last period, Blake Wheeler gave the visitors a two-goal lead.
In the end, Adam Lowry highlighted the victory of the Jets with two hits, who were more active in the game, 31:17.
The first point in the series was scored by Connor Hellebuyck, who was covered by David Rittich.