A girls hockey team from Santa Clarita bravely lace up their skates a day after a deadly Colorado crash killed a teammate’s father — with one of the young players involved in the wreck bravely taking the ice to score a tournament win.
The Santa Clarita Lady Flyers under-12 team played in the game on Friday in Littleton, Colo., after a snowplow slammed into a van carrying members of the team outside Denver on Thursday.
The collision injured eight young athletes and adults while killing the driver, later identified as the dad of a Santa Clarita player.
Despite the traumatic experience, one of the Lady Flyers in the van at the time managed to suit up for a 3-2 win against the Utah Grizzlies on Friday, according to a hockey mom who shared that the girls themselves voted to play on.
“They won their first game today, and are feeling the love and support from the hockey community and say THANK YOU,” the mom wrote in a Facebook post featuring a clip from the game.
The crash reportedly occurred just before 9 a.m. Thursday on a snowy stretch of Interstate 70 in Clear Creek County, about 55 miles west of Denver.
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A van carrying members of the Lady Flyers collided head-on with a Colorado Department of Transportation snowplow as the team traveled to the Western Girls Hockey League tournament in Littleton.
The impact was so violent that the snowplow’s blade ripped off and the van flipped off the side of the interstate. Authorities identified the driver as the sole fatality. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Of the 10 people aboard the van, eight were injured, including three Lady Flyers, according to reports.
The van had been rented by three families from the team to get the girls to the tournament, KTLA reported.
“Words cannot express the heartbreak we are experiencing,” Prescott Littlefield, president of the Santa Clarita Flyers, said in a statement after crash. ‘Please hold these families in your prayers.”