What should have been a relatively routine body check turned into a chilly disaster for a pair of hockey players this week.
During a game that was contested in the Swiss League between HC Sierre-Anniviers and EHC Langenthal, 2 players found themselves in one of the most awkward situations I have personally ever witnessed during a hockey game. The 2 players, HC Sierre forward Arnaud Montandon and EHC Langenthal defenseman Tyler Higgins were in a race for the puck along the boards when suddenly disaster struck.
It was Montandon who got to the pucl first and quickly played it up the ice, but Higgins was close enough to the play that he decided to make Montandon pay for the play by delivering a stiff body check to the veteran forward. It would be a decision the 23 year old Higgins would come to regret, although through no fault of his own.
As Higgins delivered the hit to Montandon the doors normally reserved for the Zamboni, or ice resurfacer, busted open as a result of the force of the impact. Now the fact that the doors had not been properly secured is a big problem in its own right, situations like this one can lead to some pretty serious injuries, but it somehow got even worse. The pool of ice that is usually just beyond those doors, a pool where the excess water and snow from under the Zamboni is dropped as the machine leaves the ice, had also not been properly secured.
With no grate above the ice pool there was nothing stopping anyone from crossing over it from falling in, and that is exactly what happened to both Higgins and Montandon in this situation. As the 2 men went through the doors they both fell into the gap that had been left open, and by the looks of the video they were unable to get out on their own.
A dangerous situation to be sure, and one where either man could have suffered a serious injury, especially if they had been unfortunate enough to end up falling in head first.
