Hurricanes G Ward taken to hospital with leg cut

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Carolina goalie Cam Ward remained in a hospital Saturday night after his leg was cut by a skate during the first period of the Hurricanes' game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Ward didn't fly home after the 3-2 loss because of concerns about the stress of the flight on his injury.

"It's a significant injury and all I mean by that is I don't have any timeline," coach Paul Maurice said. "There was a fair amount of blood on the ice. All I know it was his leg; other than that I do not know any more."

Hurricanes spokesman Kyle Hanlin said Ward, who was helped off the ice by two trainers, went to the hospital for further evaluation for a cut on his leg.

Ward stretched to make a save while Blue Jackets forward Rick Nash skated through the crease at 7:35. It appeared Nash or a defenseman nicked Ward in the leg with a skate.

Ward was on all fours for a couple of minutes on the ice before he was attended to by the trainers. As he was being helped off, drops of blood trailed him all the way to the dressing room.

Michael Leighton replaced Ward in goal.

"I didn't see what happened," Leighton said. "All I saw was him on the ground."

It wasn't the first time that Ward has been cut during a game. The skate of former New York Rangers forward Brad Isbister sliced Ward's knee during a game in March 2007. Ward said at the time that he didn't feel that injury, but the cut was deep enough for him to see the muscle.

Ward called it the worst injury he sustained while playing hockey.

Columbus goalie SteveMason was stunned by the latest accident.

"It's a scary thing to have happen," Columbus goalie Steve Mason said. "When you see something like that happen, especially a guy like him — he's a really nice guy off the ice — you hope everything is OK and it's not too serious.

"With the amount of blood that was coming from him, it's a pretty scary situation."

___

Nov 7, 2009 - 11:55 p.m. EDT

Copyright 2009, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.