Several communities in Saskatchewan are mourning the death of a 17-year-old hockey player who collapsed on the ice during practice.
Joel Thompson played on the town of Cupar's midget team which was practising at the rink in nearby Strasbourg on Thursday night.
Scott Frizzell, president of the Strasbourg Minor Hockey Association, says the players were doing a three-on-three scrimmage when the teen fell to the ice.
Frizzell says coaches performed CPR on the boy until the town's emergency services arrived and he was taken to hospital.
Frizzell says Thomson lived with his parents and two brothers in Bulyea.
It's not known why the teen collapsed.
Frizzell says the youth was the "epitome of a good kid" and loved all sports.
"He was always involved in hockey and if we didn't have a team ... he made sure his mom and dad were able to get him onto a team somewhere else," he said. "He was a really good kid."
Frizzell said the teen had a supportive family and everybody in the town of 800 knew him and his two brothers.
"We've talked to the minor hockey association about what we should do with the kids," he said.
On Friday, grief counsellors were brought into the school he attended to help his classmates cope.
The association postponed a bottle drive it had planned for the weekend out of respect for the family's feelings.