Hockey player dies at game

PROVO — An 18-year-old Provo Ice Cats hockey player died Friday night after going into cardiac arrest during a game.

Jaxon Logan, a freshman at Brigham Young University from Palmer, Alaska, was hit in the lower ribs with a puck while diving to block a slap shot fired by a Northern Colorado hockey player.

Logan then came out of the game and collapsed shortly afterward, said Mark Ostebo, the team's co-captain.

"Some of the guys noticed him limping off, but we see that stuff, you know, five times a game, so no one really thought anything of it," Ostebo said. "When I saw him the first time I thought he had a concussion, and so I figured he'd be awake in a couple seconds, or he'd come to. Then I realized that they were doing CPR and that it was more serious."

Head coach Matt Beaudry, who works as a Provo firefighter, and the team trainer began trying to resuscitate Logan. Paramedics arrived about five minutes later, at 10:11 p.m., and continued efforts to revive him.

"They said that he did show some signs of trying to breathe on the bench, but ultimately he really wasn't breathing," Ostebo said.

Logan was taken by ambulance to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, arriving around 10:30 p.m. The players and some of Logan's friends who attended the game followed soon after, and about 10 minutes later were told by Beaudry that medical personnel had stopped trying to resuscitate Logan.

"They said that it's a freak accident that happens," Ostebo said. "I guess it's happened before in lacrosse, in baseball and in hockey. They told us that when he was hit, the heart somehow thought that it had already pumped, so it set the rhythm of the heartbeat off, and that's what triggered the cardiac arrest."

Ostebo said the team was told by Logan's surgeon that he probably couldn't have been saved.

"The surgeon told us that if he had been there right at the moment of the injury with all the tools and everything he needed, there was really nothing he could have done," he said. "Everything that had to be done was done, and it just didn't work."

The surgeon notified Logan's parents in Alaska, and Beaudry met them at Salt Lake City International Airport Saturday morning. Logan has a sister who is a student at Utah State and a brother who graduated from BYU in December and now lives with his wife in Alaska.

Ostebo said Logan's sister and parents were able to see Logan last weekend at a game in San Jose, Calif.

Logan's body was sent to the medical examiner for further investigation. A funeral will take place in Alaska, and a memorial service will be held Monday at 6 p.m. at an LDS chapel, 85 S. 900 East, in Provo. The service is open to players, friends and the public.

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