Thaindian News

By Gina Gomez
Friday night’s game of the Atlanta Thrashers against Washington Capitals surely turned out to be a nail-biting experience for the fans of the team despite Thrashers beating their opponents in the showdown. Just in the opening minutes of the team’s season opener at the Philips Arena, Atlanta Thrashers goalie Ondrej Pavelec all of a sudden collapsed and lost consciousness. After attempts to revive him failed to yield any results, the player was taken out of the ice in a stretcher and was immediately rushed to a medical facility.

After Ondrej Pavelec collapsed on the ice, he lay motionless on his back for about fifteen minutes before being wheeled off to a nearby hospital. According to team officials, preliminary tests were conducted in the medical facility which turned out to be negative. A statement was later published in the team’s Twitter account that read that the 23-year-old player regained consciousness in the hospital where he was alert and he also inquired about the score of the game. Ondrej Pavelec was kept overnight in the hospital so that his condition could be monitored by the doctors, team officials said.

Following the incident, Atlanta Thrashers president Don Waddell revealed to media outlets that the Czech player would be undergoing further tests to ascertain the reason for his collapse on Friday night. After Ondrej Pavelec was carted off the ice and the game resumed after a 20 minutes delay, he was replaced by Chris Mason who went on to play a major role in his team’s victory against the Washington Capitals by stopping 29 shots.