Marian Gaborik’s girlfriend struck in face by puck at Kings game

Marian Gaborik labeled girlfriend Ivana Surovcova a “warrior” after taking a puck to the face during the Los Angeles Kings’ 5-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night at Staples Center.

Surovcova, a professional dancer from Gaborik’s native Slovakia, was seated behind the Kings bench when a puck flew into the crowd, striking her in the face.

Via a Puck Daddy reader’s firsthand account:

Marion Gaborik’s girlfriend took a puck in the face tonight. She was sitting behind (and one section to the right) of the Kings bench. We saw the puck deflect into the crowd in a hurry. A friend of mine saw a woman leave and said she got hit near the eye. Bleeding.

Gaborik later took to Twitter to praise his longtime girlfriend for her toughness. Surovcova, with a nasty cut near her left eye, takes a fighter’s pose in the attached photo. Gaborik not only referred to her as a “tough lil warrior,” he dubbed her the “hottest girl in the crowd,” a comment surely to merit some brownie points.

“I’m real hockey girlfriend now,” Surovocoa wrote.

Indeed.

The valuable lesson to be gleaned from Surovocoa’s experience is when at a hockey game, always keep one’s head on a swivel. You never know when a puck will come flying into the crowd and drill you.