Hockey players save woman from car wreck

On the night of January 30, June Johnson was driving home to Quebec City on Highway 73 when her car flipped upside down into a ditch. What could have been a traumatic experience quickly turned into a story of humanity and quick thinking.

“Within seconds of all this happening, all of a sudden, here are these guys going, ‘Are you OK? Are you OK?’” Johnson recalls. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m OK.’ And there’s this arm reaching in and unclicking the seatbelt strap, and they pull me out.”

Johnson soon learned she had been rescued by members of Les Bataillon Saint-Hyacinthe, a team in the North American Hockey League (NAHL), who were returning home from a game in the Beauce region. Samuel Loiselle, a newly-traded defenseman, was among those who helped.

“As soon as I could, I ran to the car,” Loiselle told CTV News. “I opened the door. It was kind of heavy because the car was upside down, so gravity was against me.”

In the chaos, Johnson didn’t get a chance to thank her rescuers or even learn their names. Weeks later, she finally reconnected with Loiselle. “Nice to meet you once again,” he said as she introduced herself. “In better conditions.”

“Yes, thank you,” Johnson replied. “I cannot thank you guys enough. I think if you didn’t get me out of there so quickly, that would have been traumatizing.”

Loiselle recounted that he was the first to reach her, and Johnson says the experience has left a lasting impact. “It gave me faith in humanity again,” she said. “This is making a difference for the whole rest of my life.”

Hockey players by day, heroes by night.