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Jets’ Brendan Lemieux suspended two games for illegal hit to head

Screen Shot 2018-11-05 at 4.01.13 PM

The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced on Monday afternoon that Winnipeg Jets forward Brendan Lemieux has been assessed a two-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Florida Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck.

The incident happened late in the second period of the Jets’ 4-2 loss in Helsinki, Finland on Friday.

Lemieux was given a match penalty as a result of the play. Here is the NHL’s explanation for the suspension.

The NHL points out that not only is Trocheck’s head is the main point of contact, but that the head contact is avoidable because Trocheck does not change the position of his head or body just prior to the hit. The onus is on Lemieux to deliver a hit that does not contact Trocheck’s head, and he failed to do that.

This is the first time in his brief NHL career that Lemieux has been disciplined by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety.

Lemieux has appeared in nine games for the Jets this season, recording zero points and 27 total penalty minutes. Seventeen of those penalty minutes came in Friday’s game as a result of the hit on Trocheck.

MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.