High-school hockey player taken from ice on stretcher

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This article was published 28/02/2018 (2954 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Game 2 of the Winnipeg High School Hockey League’s Tier 1 boys’ final ended abruptly Wednesday night after paramedics stretchered an injured member of the Sturgeon Heights Huskies off the ice and transported him to hospital.

The game was called at 9:47 of the third period when St. Paul’s 1 defenceman Michael O’Shea hammered the Huskies player into the boards with the Crusaders leading the game 5-0 at the Bell MTS Iceplex.

The best-of-three series, now tied 1-1, is scheduled to resume at 5 p.m. today at the same venue.

O’Shea was assessed a checking-from-behind major and a game misconduct. The condition of the Sturgeon Heights player, who school representatives did not want identified by the Free Press for reasons of privacy, was uncertain.

“I really don’t know,” Huskies head coach Tyler Metcalfe said. “They’re taking him to the hospital. Doctors will evaluate him there. I’m going to go there right now and find out. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. I’m hopeful that it’s nothing serious but he got drilled hard from behind.”

It was a penalty-filled game that included three earlier ejections.

In the second period, Ryan Ostermann of Sturgeon Heights was handed a boarding major and game misconduct for his hit on Owen Ostermann of the Crusaders.

Owen Ostermann also was being examined in hospital Wednesday for what St. Paul’s head coach Andrew Harder called a neck injury.

The Huskies were scoreless in eight power-play chances while the Crusaders went 2-for-5 with the man advantage.

“Just unfortunate. Both teams were just so emotional and we hope that everybody is OK,” said Harder. “Our guy is in hospital. We have to hope for the best. Hopefully their player is OK, that’s all we can hope for.”

Metcalfe believed the officiating crew lost control of the game.

“Yeah, two guys left the game injured so let people be the judge of that,” Metcalfe said. “It’s a shame to have the city finals end up being — the entire game — a power play both ways. Penalty kill and power play. Some of them were warranted, certainly. I disagree with a couple of the calls. But at the end of the day, I thought St. Paul’s played well. It’s hard to come back when you get down by a couple early.”

Mathew Sachvie scored three times for the Crusaders, who led 2-0 after the first period and 3-0 after 40 minutes. Cameron Franzmann and Ethan Lewis also scored for the winners, who suffered their first regulation loss of the season, a 6-2 decision to the Huskies, in Monday’s opening game. Kyler Van de Mosselaer posted the shutout.

Harder didn’t want to blame the officials.

“I don’t want to say they did, everything happened so fast,” Harder said. “I don’t know if it was that. The game was just so quick, I’m not sure about the tempers. We try to keep our guys under the best control we can — we want to stay out of the box as much as we can. It was just such a big game for both teams. I think the emotions got the better of them.”

Metcalfe, meanwhile, wasn’t certain if his team would be emotionally prepared to step on the ice for Game 3. Would he consider asking for a postponement from the league?

“I’m not sure, we’ll see,” he said. “Our guys are pretty shaken up. They’ve got a good friend and a teammate who just got carried off on a stretcher, so it’s pretty tough to ask kids to go back to the rink in under 24 hours and play again.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14