ESPN NHL

DETROIT -- Montreal Canadians defenseman Mathieu Carle was carried off the ice on a stretcher after being hit by Detroit's Tomas Kopecky during an exhibition game Wednesday night.

Carle lost and regained consciousness on the ice after the hit. He was taken to Detroit Medical Center for further testing.

The injury happened about 5 minutes into the exhibition game. Kopecky hit Carle after he had passed the puck at the Red Wings blue line.

"He was awake when he went to the hospital," said Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau. "We gave him a couple of quick tests and he was fine ... and he's going back with us."

The coach didn't think Kopecky's hit was dirty.

"First I thought it was a bad hit or some kind of blind side hit .. But I came down and watched it [on tape]," said Carbonneau. "... He [Kopecky] wasn't trying to gain speed just tried to make contact with Mathieu and he hit his head with the shoulder."

Kopecky said he had to do what was necessary.

"I got to do what's my job" he said. "Obviously I hit him pretty hard and felt bad for him but it's NHL you got to have your head up, nobody's going to feel sorry for me."

Detroit also had a player go to the hospital. Captain Nicklas Lidstrom was hit in the face with a shot and was helped off the ice 3:05 into the third period. He took stitches above his right eye and went to Detroit Medical Center for precautionary X-rays.

"It's above the eye touched a bit of his nose and above his head, so they're going to send him over for some tests," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "Nothing do to with his eye, so that's obviously the positive news."

The Canadiens won the game 3-2 in a shootout.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.