U of R goaltender reacts to gruesome OHL injury

University of Regina Cougars goaltender Brandon Holtby says it was something you never want to see happen on the ice.

Holtby saw the video of Niagara IceDogs goaltender Tucker Tynan getting his right leg sliced by a skate after a collision in the crease during Thursday’s OHL game against the London Knights.

Tynan appeared to be in pain and soon a pool of blood began to form as trainers rushed to aid the goalie.

The remainder of the game was cancelled. Tynan subsequently underwent successful surgery for the laceration.

“I think it was a freak accident because in the video you can see the player and defenceman run into each other and that happens all the time where someone will fall into you — your own teammates or the other team,” Holtby said Friday. “You can see him in pain and then you start seeing the blood. It was obviously just a freak accident and you hate to see it.

“The play happens a lot. You get run into as a goalie many times and I’m sure he didn’t think anything of it until he took a second to try and push (off with his skate).”

Holtby said he was looking at his equipment during practice Friday to determine how a skate was able to get through the equipment.

“It can be possible. If his legs were extended a little bit, it would have been the perfect angle,” Holtby said. “It was a freak accident for sure.”

Seeing the blood on the ice might have given viewers flashbacks to when Buffalo Sabres goaltender Clint Malarchuk had his jugular vein slashed by a skate during an NHL game in 1989.

Holtby said athletes know a freak injury can happen anytime. He recalled a time when he was playing in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and heard about one of his former teammates.

“He got hit into the boards — just an every-day hockey play — and he ended up becoming paralyzed because of it,” Holtby said. “Everyone’s aware something crazy like that could happen.”

Nicole Renneberg is the head athletic therapist with the University of Regina. She said she once had to help a player who had a wrist cut by a skate while she was working at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox,

“It cut through two tendons and knicked an artery,” Renneberg said. “There was quite a bit of blood. We applied pressure immediately, wrapped it up and called EMS.”

As an athletic therapist, she said she runs through the worst-case scenarios in her head before games.

“You just kind of review it if anything were to happen but if something major does happen, I feel there’s not really a lot of time for a lot of things to roll through your head,” Renneberg said. “You just kind of focus in on what’s happening and deal with whatever you see.”

Holtby said he has been lucky enough not to have to deal with a serious injury as a goaltender. He said it’s scary being on the ice when you see a player get hurt.

“Obviously you’re completely worried about the guy it happens to because that’s your buddy. Whether it was someone on your team or the other team, you’re just scared from the start,” Holtby said. “You hate to see that stuff.”

While he knows there’s always a chance the worst could happen, he says it doesn’t affect him on the ice.

“It’s just like anything — there are concussions and you can break a bone. There’s tons of risks out there,” Holtby said.