Winnipeg Jets' Brenden Dillon gets good news after being gashed in NHL playoffs scrum
Mike Brehm
Winnipeg Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon received good news after suffering a bloody gash to his hand during a scrum at the end of Friday night's Colorado-Winnipeg game.
"We know the gash was there, but our doctors did a fantastic job of stitching him up. There's no damage and that's the most important thing," Jets coach Rick Bowness told reporters on Saturday.
Bowness said Dillon is day-to-day. He won't play Sunday but the hope is he can play in Game 5 on Tuesday.
"There's a lot of stitches that are holding it together so our doctors are a little hesitant to put him back in this quick," Bowness said Sunday before Game 4. "If you asked him, he'd play."
The final minute of the 6-2 Avalanche win already had become feisty as Winnipeg's Adam Lowry and Colorado's Miles Wood fought with 27 seconds left.
As the final seconds ticked off, a scrum broke out in front of the Colorado net and many of the skaters on the ice got involved.
Dillon received two minor penalties for roughing and Colorado's Brandon Duhaime and Joel Kiviranta got roughing penalties against Dillon.
Duhaime and Dillon ended up at the bottom of the pile, and Dillon got gashed on the hand, apparently by a skate. When the players separated, he got up quickly and skated to the dressing room while holding his hand.
“It didn’t look good, so it’s a big sigh of relief that there wasn’t any damage done," Bowness said Saturday. "You have to give our doctors credit. They got right at it and did a good job stitching him.”
Dillon is averaging more than 20 minutes a game in the playoffs and has three points in three games.
The Jets entered the third period with a 2-1 lead, but the Avalanche scored five consecutive goals to take a 2-1 lead in the series.