Kevin Klein's ear was partially lopped off during a Monday night Rangers game in New York when he was high-sticked by a Pittsburgh Penguins player. Astonishingly, Klein got 13-stitches, re-took the ice, and scored the game-winning goal in overtime.
"I don't know if any of you saw his ear, but he lost a piece of it," New York Rangers coach Alain Vigneault
told ESPN. "We sewed it back."
The double minor penalty came late in the first period, which the Penguins finished with a 1-0 lead. By the third period, the Rangers had rallied back, leading 3-1.
Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin and Steve Downie scored two back-to-back goals in the third, tying it up, and sending the game into overtime.
That's when Klein, stitched up and wearing a plastic ear guard, took a long shot from near the blue line that clinched the sudden-death victory 4-3.
"Pain's only temporary," he told reporters after the game. "They did some of [the stitching] on the bench and the rest at intermission."
Klein was presented with the famous Broadway Hat as the Rangers' player of the game as his coach sang his praises.
"He lost a piece of his ear, and they sewed it back. Say what you want about hockey players, but they are tough," Vigneault
told Fox Sports.
Pictures of the bloody ear underneath the Broadway Hat simultaneously went viral on Twitter and Facebook.
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