Ilya Protas absorbed a cheap shot from Lehigh Valley Phantoms forward, Garrett Wilson, late in the first period, sending the 6-foot-6 centerman careening to the ice. He struggled to get up.
“It hurt real bad after I got hit,” Protas said postgame. “Right away.”
But Protas made his way back to the Bears bench, and after doing some twirls on the ice during the stoppage in play, he remained in the game.
“After I came to the room and had that intermission, it helped me a lot to kind of rest and get back full recovery,” he said. “The trainers helped during the intermission, and I put some ice and I felt great afterwards though.”
Protas returned the favor to the Phantoms in the best possible way later: on the scoreboard. The Belarusian forward scored the game-winning shootout goal, after teasing forehand and then beating Phantoms goaltender Carson Bjarnason on a stunning backhand tally.
Here’s another look.
For notching the shootout game-winner, Protas was named the First Star of the Game.
Inside the locker room after the game, he was also awarded the Hershey firefighter outfit as player of the game by goaltender Clay Stevenson.
“I’m going to give this one to Pro,” Stevenson said to roars from the team. “Absolute warrior.”
Little Pro put the firefighter helmet on backward.
“Boys, unreal job. Just keep it going!”
