Bus carrying junior hockey team crashes in northern Alberta, two sent to hospital

Randi Pouliot, whose 18-year-old son, Dominic Schell, is the starting goalie for the Athabasca Rivermen, said her son phoned from hospital.

“He just told me that they were going around a corner and the bus driver hit some black ice … and they ended up going straight into the ditch,” said Pouliot, speaking from Red Deer, Alta.

“I was worried. I started crying. I was not in the best of shape myself.”

RCMP say those on the bus were between 15 and 19.

Photos supplied by RCMP showed the bus in an upright position among felled trees, its windshield smashed and the front end damaged.

Pouliot said she didn’t know if the bus had seatbelts. Police have said the road conditions were poor with snow and ice and the temperature was below -30 C.

Pouliot said the team remained on the bus until paramedics arrived.

The National Junior Hockey League, an independent organization not affiliated with Hockey Canada, confirmed in a news release that the Athabasca Junior A Hockey Club was involved in the crash, which occurred while the team was travelling to a game in Crowsnest Pass, south of Calgary.

“The health and well-being of everyone involved remains our highest priority,” the league said. “We extend our sincere appreciation to the first responders and medical personnel.”

Jacob Hegerfeldt, who said he was an owner of the Rivermen and the team’s managing director, declined to answer questions about the crash when reached by phone on Friday. He said the team was not commenting at this time.

Athabasca Mayor Robert Balay said town officials have yet to hear directly from parents as almost all of the players are from out of town.

“I’m just really happy that no one was seriously hurt. You can fix a bus and everything else,” he said in an interview.

The Crowsnest Crush with the National Junior Hockey League said on social media that its weekend games against the Athabasca Rivermen were cancelled because of the crash.

It said the Athabasca team had been en route to the Crowsnest Pass when its charter bus hit some trees.

“Our hearts are heavy this morning as we extended all of our prayers, thoughts and best wishes to the Athabasca Rivermen Junior A Hockey Club and their families,” said the post.

“As a hockey community, we are all thinking of you and encourage all our Crush fans from near and far to light up the Pass in support and have those sticks out.”

Balay said the bus involved is used for other community services and is owned by Lincoln County Oilfield Services. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Athabasca is 140 kilometres north of Edmonton.

In 2018, the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team was on its way to a game in Saskatchewan when its bus struck a semi-truck that had barrelled through a stop sign at a rural intersection. Sixteen were killed and 13 were injured.

Thoughts of the Broncos crash came to mind for Balay.

“Any time there’s a hockey team that’s in an accident with a bus, we all remember what happened in Saskatchewan.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2025.

— by Rob Drinkwater in Edmonton and Brittany Hobson in Winnipeg

The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Bus carrying junior hockey team crashes in northern Alberta, two sent to hospital

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