A Twin Cities hockey player fell in a race for the puck during a junior game in suburban Chicago over the weekend, hit his head on the boards and suffered a “very serious spinal injury” that has left him paralyzed below the shoulders, according to his family and the team.
Defenseman Matt Olson, 20, who played in high school for Totino-Grace of Fridley and graduated in 2014, was hurt in a home game for the Chicago Cougars of the U.S. Premier Hockey League (USPHL) vs. the Illiana Blackbirds of northwest Indiana.
Olson, whose family is from Isanti, caught one of his skate blades in a rut on the ice Sunday while racing for a puck behind his team’s net at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates in the final regular-season game, a Cougars team official said Wednesday.
“He has no movement in any of his extremities below his shoulders,” Cougars business manager Mike Tompkins said moments after receiving an update from Advocate Lutheran Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill., where Olson is being treated.
Olson is receiving mechanical assistance in order to breath and communicating through eye movement, but “he’s conscious and never lost consciousness from the time of the injury,” Tompkins said.
Olson’s mother, Sue, explained on a CaringBridge Web page that “this was a very serious spinal injury that resulted in permanent damage. … The family appreciates all the prayers and well wishes.”
The CaringBridge report also noted “this was not the result of physical contact from any player.”
Tompkins explained that an opposing player sent the puck behind the Cougars’ net, and Olson raced after it with rival skaters in pursuit, and he “hit a rut in the ice and went face-first into the boards.”
An ambulance quickly arrived and took Olson to Advocate Lutheran. He underwent surgery the next day to stabilize his spine, a follow-up CaringBridge posting Tuesday reported. “The surgery went well, and Matt is doing great. … Matt is smiling,” the posting read.
Tompkins, the team’s business manager, said he admires Olson not only for his hockey abilities, but in all ways that he contributed to the team.
“From Day 1, Matt has been a leader on this team, from Day 1 a leader in the locker room, on the ice and on the bus. We’ve done nine-plus community service projects, and Matt volunteered for every single one of them.”
Now it’s time, Tompkins added, that “we need to be here for the Olson family. This is a lifelong journey the family is on.”
A fundraising effort was started at www.gofundme.com/mattolson-3 to help the family with expenses and it had topped $14,000 by late Wednesday morning.
Cougars team owner and general manager Joe Dibble said he was watching the game online, “and seeing it there, you didn’t get the full extent of it. I rewound and watched it again, but I could never do that again. It made me sick to my stomach.”
After a lengthy delay following Olson’s injury, Sunday’s game ended with Illiana winning, 6-5. Olson scored the first goal for the Cougars, his 12th of the season. He left the ice on a stretcher a little more than halfway into the first period.
In his four seasons at Totino-Grace, Olson recorded 13 goals and 30 assists in 114 games. He was captain his senior year, when the Eagles made it to the Class A state tournament and won the consolation bracket.
This season’s Totino-Grace squad has a section playoff game Wednesday night in Roseville against Mahtomedi, and “the best thing we can do is win the game for him,” said head coach Mark Loahr. “Matt never quit and always gave his best. … Too many people quit when things get difficult or don’t give their best. Matt was never like that.”
The Cougars and other members of the USPHL provide athletes who have played high school-age hockey with an opportunity to improve their chances of competing in college. The Cougars compete in a conference of the USPHL that includes teams from Minnesota in Forest Lake, Blaine, Vadnais Heights and Owatonna.
Olson was getting some recruiting attention from the Division III, the non-scholarship level of college hockey, Dibble said.
“There was no doubt in anyone’s mind he was going to be a college hockey player,” Dibble said. “He’s still going to touch many people, but just in a different way.”
