Minnehaha Saints Hockey Player Hospitalized After Injury

[MinnGirlsHockey]

Prayers please.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/01/0 ... us-injury/

http://www.startribune.com/local/136885 ... page=1&c=y

[Bandy]

Thank you for posting. The Strib story now has a video of the hit.

I'm still numb from the Jablonski news. There was a lot of discussion on what to do about cleaning up the game on the boys high school hockey board, http://www.ushsho.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=32 .

Aside from the fact that girls doesn't have legal checking, much of that discussion rings true in the girls game. Let's clean it up, folks.

[hockeya1a]

Prayers for a speedy and complete recovery!

[jumpstart]

Prayers for a speedy and complete recovery!

I also offer my hope for a speedy and complete recovery.

[ghshockeyfan]

...Thoughts and prayers with Jenna and her family...

The Pioneer Press had these articles recently:
http://www.twincities.com/ci_19700735
http://www.twincities.com/ci_19697548

LPH columnist Jack Blatherwick wrote the following after the Jablonski news:
http://www.letsplayhockey.com/online-ed ... skill.html

Ending with the comments "ELIMINATE ALL CHECKING AGAINST THE BOARDS" and "THERE IS NO LEGAL HIT INTO THE BOARDS"

The Benilde-St. Margaret's girls' hockey team is selling "Jabby #13/Stay Strong" wristbands for $2 each with all proceeds going to Jablonski family. To order, e-mail wristbandsforjabby@gmail.com

[Hieronymus]

Sadly, this will not be fixed overnight. At a HS game I attended on Friday I saw some of the most dangerous plays I've seen all year. This, after all that has been written, all the discussions with coaches and athletic directors and even a moment of silence before the game. One checking from behind that was called, another that went uncalled, one of the most violent checks I've ever seen in a girls game. Plus at least two other times where the offending team's forechecker did what I consider the scariest play in hockey, when they give the cross check to the lower back as the defenseman is approaching the boards to knock them off balance. All of the offenses by the same team. The cross checks weren't violent but the type of play where if they catch the leading player off guard can result in the frightening type play we all fear.

In my opinion this falls on the coaches at the high school level. They need to demand their players play a safe game. If they don't then they sit. That simple. I was appalled by the dirty play of other team. They have always been a team that has played a bit "chippy" but I was shocked that it was worse that usual given recent events.

[nofinish]

If this team has a rep and players doing dangerous plays are not isolated incidents why keep the team unnamed?

Let other teams be forwarned and coaches need to be held accountable.

[Hieronymus]

If this team has a rep and players doing dangerous plays are not isolated incidents why keep the team unnamed?

Let other teams be forwarned and coaches need to be held accountable.

They weren't previously a "dangerous" team and I still don't think they are. We know several of the kids and they are good people but my point was that we can't expect things will change overnight. Players are "in the moment" and they are going to go with their instinct until that instinct is changed. A moment of silence and a 2 minute discussion earlier in the week aren't going to change that. It will take time.

[hockey_for_fun]

Father says St. Croix Lutheran senior Jenna Privette still has no feeling below waist and remains in hospital
By Brian Murphy and Jessica Fleming
Pioneer Press
But a former coach of the Blades said other coaches and players she has talked to who were at the game or saw a video of the incident think those reports are inaccurate. "I definitely don't think it was a check from behind by any means," said Sarma Ozmen, now an assistant coach at Hamline University who has watched the video. "It just looked like an awkward fall." Ozmen said she's been in touch with many of the Blades' players, whom she coached for three years, including the girl who is rumored to have caused the injury, since Friday. "She is the sweetest, smartest hockey player I've ever coached, and she feels just awful," Ozmen said.

These quotes from Sarma upset me on several levels.
She wasn’t at the game and based on the video shown on wcco, it was very difficult to see how Jenna was hit to the ice. I was at the game and standing in the corner where
she fell against the boards and had a clear view of how it happened. It was a cross check
to Jenna’s shoulder blades knocking her face forward into the boards.

The first question would be how does someone fall forward. Based on her falling face forward the collision occurred from behind her and high on her back, like getting rear ended on 494. How does Sarma propose a skater fall forward with that kind of force?

What I saw on the video was the Blades defender skating from the front of the net to where Jenna was standing. This defender raised her stick and we see Jenna fall.I can tell this because you can see the stick blade of the defender over the defenders head as Jenna is falling. I watched this video many times on TIVO. I saw what happened live this only confirmed who made the hit.

Another upsetting thing about this event is the reaction of the referee, he stood there motioning for her to get up as if she was faking the injury. I believe referees are integral to sport and we can’t have games without them, but with that comes the responsibility of calling a fair game and protecting the players by calling penalties on plays that are dangerous and illegal. I never want this man refereeing a game my daughter plays in and I don’t think any other player deserves him either.

I do agree with Sarma about the girl that hit Jenna. I’ve known her for ten years and know her to be a kind, intelligent person.

This injury was not a random act but one caused by a reckless and dangerous play.

[ghshockeyfan]

It was pretty tough for me to tell what happened from the video alone based on the position of the play relative to the net and other players in the viewing path of the incident.

I think Sarma is in a pretty difficult position - as anyone would be to comment on this beyond stating the obvious that this is extremely unfortunate and another opportunity for the sport to examine what can be done to increase player safety through many means including education/training of officials/coaches/players.

Here is the link to the entire Pioneer Press article (not sure if the entire text was reflected/captured above):

http://www.twincities.com/prep/ci_19707577

[MNHockeyFan]

This was posted on the boys forum, just for everybody's information here:

http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/publications ... e.pdf?ne=9

[KatoDad]

To respond to the post by Hieronymus; come watch the Mankato East vs. Mankato West girls game Thursday night. The East coach has allowed this rivalry to go beyond hockey, East players had posted a video showing their "greatest hits" on youtube it has since been removed, athletic directors have now added a third official for Thursdays game. The sad thing is their coaches, parents etc see nothing wrong with the over the top physical play that occurs. The saddest thing is these girls played together in youth hockey up till 7th grade when they split and go to their respective high school teams. They were the best of friends back then, now they want to kill each other, got to be coaching and a little poor parenting. it's the first time in my daughters 10 years of playing I've considered pulling her from a game.

[MinnGirlsHockey]

Father says St. Croix Lutheran senior Jenna Privette still has no feeling below waist and remains in hospital
By Brian Murphy and Jessica Fleming
Pioneer Press
But a former coach of the Blades said other coaches and players she has talked to who were at the game or saw a video of the incident think those reports are inaccurate. "I definitely don't think it was a check from behind by any means," said Sarma Ozmen, now an assistant coach at Hamline University who has watched the video. "It just looked like an awkward fall." Ozmen said she's been in touch with many of the Blades' players, whom she coached for three years, including the girl who is rumored to have caused the injury, since Friday. "She is the sweetest, smartest hockey player I've ever coached, and she feels just awful," Ozmen said.

These quotes from Sarma upset me on several levels.
She wasn’t at the game and based on the video shown on wcco, it was very difficult to see how Jenna was hit to the ice. I was at the game and standing in the corner where
she fell against the boards and had a clear view of how it happened. It was a cross check
to Jenna’s shoulder blades knocking her face forward into the boards.

The first question would be how does someone fall forward. Based on her falling face forward the collision occurred from behind her and high on her back, like getting rear ended on 494. How does Sarma propose a skater fall forward with that kind of force?

What I saw on the video was the Blades defender skating from the front of the net to where Jenna was standing. This defender raised her stick and we see Jenna fall.I can tell this because you can see the stick blade of the defender over the defenders head as Jenna is falling. I watched this video many times on TIVO. I saw what happened live this only confirmed who made the hit.

Another upsetting thing about this event is the reaction of the referee, he stood there motioning for her to get up as if she was faking the injury. I believe referees are integral to sport and we can’t have games without them, but with that comes the responsibility of calling a fair game and protecting the players by calling penalties on plays that are dangerous and illegal. I never want this man refereeing a game my daughter plays in and I don’t think any other player deserves him either.

I do agree with Sarma about the girl that hit Jenna. I’ve known her for ten years and know her to be a kind, intelligent person.

This injury was not a random act but one caused by a reckless and dangerous play.

hockey_for_fun, this is really going to tick you off:
http://www.startribune.com/local/south/137222718.html
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S2451098.shtml?cat=1

From the Star Tribune article:
A Minnesota State High School League report documenting the hockey incident that sent 18-year-old Jenna Privette to the hospital says she wasn't hit or pushed to the ice.

Although Privette's father said after the Jan. 6 injury that he was certain that she had been checked from behind, an official who filled out an incident report said the girl fell where she was standing.

"She was not contacted illegally, did not fall into the boards and did not appear to fall awkwardly to the ice," the report said. The official said he checked with his partner, the linesman, the EMT on staff and a school official, and "everyone agreed that the player appeared to fall unaided."

Here is the Star Tribune URL containing the actual MSHSL incident report completed by the referee (beneath the one for the game in which Jack Jablonski was injured):
http://stmedia.startribune.com/document ... rts(2).pdf
(you'd probably have to copy & paste this to your browser, I couldn't get the link to work)

I know the video released is somewhat grainy and the net & traffic in front of it blocks much of the play, but I've just watched it again about 5 more times and there clearly appears to be physical contact initiated by the Blades player while Privette had her back towards her. I've seen much worse (mostly on the boys side), but I don't know how this could be considered "legal" contact and I don't know how anyone with decent eyesight would say that she fell "unaided". I think it's also telling that the spectator in the corner on the far right side raised their arm immediately after Privette started to fall down (maybe this is 'hockey_for_fun' guy?).

The referee's incident report is troubling and tells me that he obviously didn't get a good look at the play at all, and apparently neither did the other on-ice/off-ice people mentioned in the report. His description of the play indicates that there wasn't even physical contact made between the two players - the video is clear about this point and the Blades player has essentially admitted to this by "feeling awful" about the play (I do have a lot of empathy for her and what she must be going through). To top things off, the ref even got the clock time wrong - it appears to stop at 1:48 (not 1:43) based on when play was eventually whistled down. And he called either "3 or 4" penalties in addition to a penalty shot. Is it too much effort to check with the official scorer before leaving the rink to confirm the remaining time and how many penalties were called?

The only reasonable explanation to me here is that the ref was trying to cover his bum (since a penalty wasn't called on the play), but at the time he filled out the report he must've had no idea that video footage of the play would surface later to contradict the contents of his report.

Although I'm still shocked that the MSHSL seems to be standing by his incident report in light of the video (however, nothing related to the MSHSL's actions should probably shock me any more). In my opinion, the officials involved and the league all look like complete idiots (in addition to the former Blades coach whom the Pioneer Press approached for an "unbiased" - I'm sure - opinion). And the MSHSL is missing another great opportunity to help stop hits from behind.

I sure hope my daughter's team doesn't get this reffing crew.

[Bandy]

I watched the video about 50 times. It's not possible for me to say for sure that she was hit from behind based on the video. Can't see it. The ref down by the goal line should have seen the play. I would have a hard time believing the linesman could see it much better than the video cam--he appeared obstructed at the beginning of the video and the end. Unless he went across the ice during the middle, he probably wouldn't have seen anything.

It _appears_ that she was hit--based on the quick thrust forward her helmet & upper body did right before she went down. It was no ordinary fall. She did not appear to be skating fast enough for a trip (such as skating into an object such as stick blade, a piece of tape lying on the ice, or whatever)...she turned, and was moving pretty slowly, then POP--her head & shoulders thrust forward and down she goes. Right when dark jersey was next to her. But if the ref didn't see it that way, and the video doesn't show it, pretty hard to conclude anything.

[hockeya1a]

I too have watched the Video numerous times and I will focus on one part at a time, I am seeing the player (Dark Jersey) Arms fly forward and up at the same time as Jenna falling forward. at the same time the people along the boards are raising there arms, The lines man I am sure was not watching and probably could not see being on the ice level. the Ref along the side almost seemed to be looking at the net area but hard to tell.

I know the Refs cannot see everything that goes on and you don't have to hit someone hard to make them fall.

I don't believe there was any intention to hurt Jenna.
I think it all happened so fast and most of all it is a terrible thing she did get hurt and I hope for her a Speedy recovery.

[MNHockeyFan]

Best of luck to Miss Privette on a full recovery.

Jenna Privette Speaks For First Time About Hockey Injury

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/02/0 ... ey-injury/

[capitalist]

Must have been a very emotional win for the Saints last night in the opening round of Section 4A, knocking off #2 seed and Tri-Metro rival SPU in the second overtime. Julia Carle came up big with 48 saves, including 12 in OT. There might be a better freshman goalie in the state but I haven't heard of one.