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Update: injured Slovakian forward Lubos Bartecko in stable condition

By Helene Elliott
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Slovakia forward Lubos Bartecko is in stable condition after suffering a head injury as the result of a blatantly dirty hit by Norway’s Ole Kristian Tollefsen during the teams’ playoff qualifying game Tuesday at Canada Hockey Place.

The hit dropped Bartecko to the ice and his helmet popped off. He struck his unprotected head on the ice and bled profusely. Medical personnel quickly came to his aid and took him off the ice on a stretcher.

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According to a statement issued through the Olympic News Service, Slovakia team spokesman Peter Dobias said Bartecko was treated on site and later taken to the medical clinic at the Vancouver Athletes Village.

Tollefsen was given a major penalty and a match penalty and won’t be eligible to play in Norway’s next game.

--Helene Elliott, in Vancouver

Olympics Blog
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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