Cops Investigate Brutal Hockey Hit

A Colorado Avalanche hockey player suffered a fractured neck and a concussion after an opposing player hit him from behind on the ice, and police are investigating.

Forward Steve Moore will remain hospitalized in Vancouver indefinitely after the hit by Vancouver Canucks forward Todd Bertuzzi, who slugged Moore in the side of the head late in Monday night's 9-2 Colorado victory.

Bertuzzi hit Moore from behind and drove his head into the ice. Moore landed face-first — with the 245-pound Bertuzzi on top of him — and lay in a pool of blood for several minutes before he was removed on a stretcher.

B.C. Solicitor General Rich Coleman and Vancouver police are investigating, the second time in four years police have looked into an on-ice hit at an NHL game in the city.

"It doesn't matter what the score was, what the time was, what the place was, what the history was, there's no room in our game for that," Colorado coach Tony Granato said.

Bertuzzi was suspended indefinitely pending a hearing at the NHL office in Toronto on Wednesday.

The punch appeared to be retaliation for an open-ice hit Moore delivered to Canucks captain Markus Naslund last month, knocking him out for three games.

Vancouver general manager Brian Burke said Bertuzzi was "distraught" and tried to contact Moore at the hospital.

In 2000, former Boston Bruin Marty McSorley was charged for hitting then-Vancouver Canuck Donald Brashear with his stick. McSorley was convicted of assault with a weapon, but he received an 18-month conditional discharge, meaning no jail time and no criminal record after probation.

The league suspended him for a year, ending his 17-year NHL career.