BUFFALO — In a moment that brought a sell-out crowd at HSBC Arena to a terrified silence, Richard Zednik of the Florida Panthers was inadvertently sliced under his neck by the skate of a teammate on Sunday, sending the forward to Buffalo General Hospital for emergency surgery. He was in stable condition later Sunday after a successful surgery.

Zednik was clipped by the skate of Olli Jokinen, was had been tangled with Buffalo’s Clarke MacArthur in the Sabres end midway through the third period.

As blood spurted from his neck, Zednik raced all the way to the Florida bench, which was located on the opposite side of center ice.

Players and coaches from both teams were obviously shaken by the event, which forced a delay of about 15 minutes. Fans stood in unison when it was announced over the sound system that Zednik was stable.

“It was like Quentin Tarantino movie,” said goalie Ryan Miller, who had the play happen just to his left. “I don’t want to see any more of that. It could be any one of us out there. You take the necessary precautions, but there can always be freak accidents out there.”

Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff met with referee Bill McCreary and Panthers coach Jacques Martin in the hallway behind the Florida bench and decided to resume play. Buffalo went on to win, 5-3.

Jokinen didn’t think the game should have continued, and Ruff said he would have understood that decision.

“When you see something like that, it’s not about the game any more,” Ruff said. “I don’t know if there’s a right answer I can fully understand if it wasn’t (continued).”

Jokinen didn’t see the accident because he’d been turned upside down. Zednik was curling from behind the net and started to had back toward his own end when the skate clipped him.

“Blood was kind of flying out of his throat. I was right there,” he said. “At first I didn’t realize it was my skate because I fell down. I saw the replay on the TV and it was, you know, I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s very scary.”

Contact group sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.