Islanders’ Adam Pelech, Noah Dobson dismiss Rangers’ ‘vicious’ hits claim

Adam Pelech and Noah Dobson alike had little time for Rangers coach Peter Laviolette’s accusation that they had viciously hit Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck, respecitvely, during Tuesday’s 4-2 Islanders win over their archrivals.

“I’ll just say it was completely unintentional and I hope Mika’s okay,” Pelech said. “I think if the camera showed me at all after the collision, you could tell that I felt sick about it, cause he didn’t look good going down and getting up off the ice. So, like I said, it was completely unintentional and I hope he was okay.”

Zibanejad did return to the Rangers’ bench at the end of the game and participated in practice Thursday.

Laviolette described the collision as intentional on Pelech’s part, to which Pelech expressed surprise.

The defenseman’s elbow hit Zibanejad as the center was skating off the ice for a change.

“I was following the play up the ice, they kinda had the puck,” Pelech said. “I stopped in the neutral zone to see what was going on. I was looking up ice the whole time and we collided.”