It looked like a scene out of a hokey hockey movie — a player gets gashed in the head, bleeds all over the ice, gets several dozen stitches, then returns to score the game winner.
Except that really happened Friday night, as Blue Jackets left wing Matt Calvert scored a short-handed, tie-breaking goal in the third period to help Columbus beat the Rangers 4-2.
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It's an outcome no one would have predicted midway through the second period, after Calvert took a slapshot to the face off the stick of Rangers defenseman Nick Holden.
Per Redditor Flintor, #BlueJackets fwd Matt Calvert takes puck to the face and...ouch. Not for the squeamish. pic.twitter.com/aMZoqb89dN
— Andy Cole (@AndyCole84) November 19, 2016
After bleeding profusely on the ice, Calvert headed to the trainer's room to get 36 stitches in his forehead. If that happened to most people on the job, they'd definitely take the rest of the day off. But Calvert is a hockey player, and so he returned to work. And at 11:35 of the third period, he knocked home the game winner.
"You can't script it any better that he comes back and scores the winner for us," Blue Jackets center Sam Gagner told the Associated Press. "That's just an unbelievable teammate and it gives every guy on the bench a huge shot when he comes back."
A huge shoutout to my linemate @mattcalvert11 for taking 36 stitches and returning to the game in the third period #GWG # warrior pic.twitter.com/80Ho3Sjjxn
— Josh Anderson (@joshanderson_77) November 19, 2016
The Blue Jackets have now won a franchise-record seven straight home games.