Hockey tournament honouring Humboldt Broncos bus crash victims seen as chance for community to unite

Stephen Cook
Jul 07, 2018  •  July 8, 2018  •  2 minute read
Humboldt Broncos bus crash survivors Derek Patter (left) and Tyler Smith (right) attended a ceremony to kick off a memorial hockey tournament organized by friends of four Humboldt Broncos hockey players from St. Albert, Alberta who died in the tragic bus crash three months ago was held in St. Albert on July 6, 2018. The weekend tournament, running Friday through Sunday at the Mark Messier Arena in Servus Place, honoured four fallen Broncos who were St. Albert hockey alumni: Stephen Wack, Jaxon Joseph, Logan Hunter and Conner Lukan. A ceremonial puck was dropped by Humboldt Broncos survivors Derek Patter and Tyler Smith before the game. Jaskirat Sidhu, the 29-year-old man from Calgary who was driving the semi-trailer truck that struck the hockey team's bus, has been charged with sixteen counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and thirteen counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm. He is scheduled to appear in a Saskatchewan court next week. (PHOTO BY LARRY WONG/POSTMEDIA)
Humboldt Broncos bus crash survivors Derek Patter, left, and Tyler Smith kick off a memorial hockey tournament on Friday, July 6, 2018, organized by friends of four Humboldt Broncos hockey players from St. Albert, Alta., who died in the tragic bus crash three months ago — Stephen Wack, Jaxon Joseph, Logan Hunter and Conner Lukan. Photo by Larry Wong /Postmedia

A charity hockey tournament in honour of those killed and injured in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash was praised Saturday as a chance for community members to come together.

Spectators filled the stands of St. Albert’s Mark Messier Arena for the second day of the event, which aims to raise $50,000 through sponsors, public donations and a silent auction.

The 84 players had raised about $17,000 toward that goal before play even began.

Twenty per cent of proceeds will go to the Humboldt Strong Community Foundation, while the remainder will fund four scholarships for students, student athletes or athletes through the St. Albert Humboldt Remembrance Committee.

The event was organized by friends of four players from the St. Albert area — Conner Lukan, Stephen Wack, Jaxon Joseph and Logan Hunter — who were among the 16 people killed in the bus crash April 6.

Another 13 passengers were injured.

“You see how much it affects everybody,” said Calvyn Reith, who knew Wack as well as Hunter’s sister. “It warms your heart when you come to the rink and you see everybody here.”

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Ben Pineau, who played on the St. Albert Raiders with Joseph and at the tournament is on the team named for him, said the event gives him and others a chance to reunite and heal.

“It feels good to just be out here with everybody,” he said. Pineau remembers Joseph as friendly and open, ready to chat with anybody.

“All the boys that were on that team fell in love with him a little bit.”

Kim Voigt, a friend of Hunter’s mother Shauna Nordstrom, said the tournament shows how people in the community support one another.

“They’re there for the families,” she said, decked out in full Broncos gear. “They recognize these families are really suffering and going through a hard time.”

The tournament’s first puck dropped just hours after the RCMP announced charges against the truck driver involved in the crash.

“Right at a time that could potentially have been very difficult for the families they had this event to kind of counter that,” Voigt said.

“Obviously, there’s nobody that feels worse than that guy,” said Pineau, who will wait until more information comes out to form an opinion.

“We’re just thinking about the boys right now,” he said.

The tournament ran through Sunday in Servus Place.

With files from Jonny Wakefield.