Saturday night's game between the Peoria Rivermen and the Huntsville Havoc of the Southern Professional Hockey League had to be suspended after a player suffered a horrific injury.


According to the Peoria Journal Star, Huntsville center Justin Cseter was accidentally slashed across his thigh by Peoria forward Dennis Sicard's skate in the second period. Cseter and Sicard were behind the Havoc goal scrapping for the puck when they both fell over, with Cseter and his thigh landing squarely on the blade of Sicard's skate. Cseter got up and skated a few feet before collapsing back onto the ice.

There's video of the incident, with the tussle occurring on the right side of your screen. We warn you, there is a Dexter amount of blood spatter here:


Trainers from both teams rushed onto the ice in a bid to save Cseter's life. In desperate need of a tourniquet, they improvised appropriately:

The doctor needed to creare [sic] a tourniquet. He yelled for someone to break a hockey stick in half. They used it to tie down pressure on Cseter's leg in an effort to control the bleeding.

The hockey stick tourniquet was able to stop the bleeding from a wound that was 1.5 inches deep and 6 inches wide, yet somehow did not slice an artery. After 30 minutes of treatment Cseter was wheeled off the ice, giving a thumbs up to the crowd before he was whisked away to the hospital.

Cseter seems to be doing better, as he's already on the long nine-hour bus ride back home to Huntsville:


[Journal Star]