Referee Chris Rooney forced out of Game 7 after taking stick to face

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TORONTO (AP) — Referee Chris Rooney, widely considered to be one of the top officials in the NHL, was bloodied and had to leave Game 7 of the Florida-Toronto playoff matchup Sunday night after taking an inadvertent stick above one of his eyes.

The play happened 13 seconds into the second period, when Florida's Niko Mikkola was jousting for the puck and his stick went into Rooney's face.

The game was stopped for several minutes and a stretcher was brought onto the ice, but Rooney skated off with some assistance and with a towel covering much of his face as he was brought to the locker room area for further evaluation and treatment.

Rooney got stitches and was ruled out for the remainder of the game.

The NHL has stand-by officials at playoff games and Garrett Rank took over as one of the two referees following Rooney's injury, joining a crew that also included referee Jean Hebert and linesmen Devin Berg and Jonny Murray.

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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl