A minor-league hockey game in Peoria, Ill., was stopped Saturday night after a player sustained a gruesome cut to his leg that required a tourniquet.
It was just a routine game in the Southern Professional Hockey League Saturday night in Peoria, Ill., as the visiting Huntsville Havoc trailed the host Peoria Rivermen 2-1 in the second period.
What happened next was far from routine.
Huntsville center Justin Cseter collided with Peoria’s Dennis Sicard in the corner in Huntsville’s defensive zone and fell onto Sicard’s skate as the Peoria player was on all fours on the ice, trying to get to his feet.
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Cseter skated out of the corner with blood spurting from his thigh as players and officials frantically screamed for medical assistance.
Cseter had been slashed in the leg, in an unprotected gap between the bottom of his pants and the top of his knee pad.
Be warned before hitting the “play” button that the video below is not for the squeamish.
One fan fainted, with the Peoria Journal-Star reporting that team officials said it was believed the fan had a seizure while Cseter’s injury was taking place.
A doctor had a player break his stick in half to use as a tourniquet to staunch the blood flow from a wound about six inches wide and 1½ inches deep across the inner thigh on his right leg.
The thigh muscle was cut, according to the report, but the skate blade missed the artery in the leg.
Cseter was taken to a hospital for surgery to close the wound and coaches Jean-Guy Trudel of Peoria and Glenn Detulleo of Huntsville met in the tunnel under the grandstands for a conference call with SPHL president Jim Combs.
Neither team wanted to continue the game. Combs ruled it suspended. The teams will determine when it will be continued in the coming days.
"“You realize what things are important when something like this happens,” Detulleo said. “This was a hockey game. We were all pretty shaken up about it. It was horrible.”"
The teams returned to the ice to acknowledge the fans who remained. The players met at center ice to exchange handshakes and some hugs while talking about the experience.
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