81 people hospitalized after Zamboni malfunctions.

In one of the stranger stories you will hear coming out of this week end, at least 81 people including 25 players and coaches were hospitalized after a Zamboni apparently malfunctioned. The incident occurred following a game at the Poppy Waterman Arena in Lae Delton, Wisconsin between the Dells Ducks and Rochester Ice Hawks of the Minnesota Junior Hockey League. After the game several people became ill, with several vomiting and one player reportedly losing consciousness. When it became clear that this wasn't simply the flu that had been going around the paramedics were called in, and after running some test, the Lake Delton Fire Department concluded that the high levels of carbon monoxide had seeped into the building due to a faulty Zamboni. While it may not sound so serious at first, some of the players were extremely sick after the game, and some believe they were lucky to escape without a more serious incident. Via the Post Bulletin:

"Honestly, we are lucky nobody died," Nick Fatis said. "These are athletes, doing high-level physical activity, breathing in heavily for several hours, in an environment that was poisoned by carbon monoxide. It was very ugly, but it could have been much worse."

Members of the Dell Ducks had been playing for their second straight night in the arena, and were the ones hardest hit as they had been subjected to the carbon monoxide poisoning for two straight days. One player, Marcus Stoulil was so ill that none of the local hospitals felt they could treat him appropriately and has been sent to the Mayo Clinic for further treatment.

"He had a cardiovascular issue that doctors felt needed to be checked out further by doctors at Mayo Clinic," Fatis said. "Marcus is a kid who skated both nights for us. We are seeing the players who played both nights are the ones who had it the worst. They were the sickest, which makes sense."

The good news is, as of right now it appears everyone is going to make it out of the incident ok. But be wary the next time you see a Zamboni coming to clean the ice, you could be it's latest victim.