Royals Advance, Jeff Goes to the ER

Despite blizzard like conditions outside last night, the inside of the Schwan’s Super Rink in Blaine was packed with students cheering on the Bethel University Royals. The BU boys didn’t disappoint as they defeated visiting St. Olaf college 5-1 on a wintry March night. With the victory Bethel advanced to the M.I.A.C. Championship game on Saturday. Read more here

The picture above is Bethel’s reaction to their first goal in the game last night. My brother Jeff is #17.

As usual the scoring attack was balanced with multiple Bethel players getting goals. My brother Jeff played a solid two way game. He had one real nice move in the third period, jumping with the puck in between two Ollie defense men before shooting it off the goalie’s face mask.

The scariest moment of the evening happened with about 4 minutes left in the third period. My brother had the puck in the offensive zone and he tried curling back up the boards with it. Just as he turned a St. Olaf defense man checked him into the boards, sending Jeff’s head into the sidewall. After laying on the ice for a couple moments Jeff got up and skated very slowly off the ice. I thought he might just shake it off but then I noticed the trainers holding his helmet steady on the bench and not moving him at all. After the game he was still in the same position with a team of medical personal around him.

In the end he had his neck stabilized and he was transported by ambulance to a local hospital. Thankfully Jeff never lost consciousness or feeling anywhere in his body. The hospital CAT scan showed some bruised tissue but nothing fractured or torn. They told him he would be pretty sore for a few days and ended up releasing him from the ER that night. Praise God!

A very cool moment occurred in the ER as we were waiting for the doctor to interpret the CAT scan. A group of us were talking about how bad Jeff wants to play on Saturday. Then Jeff remembered a story about Erwin McManus praying for his wife when she was sick and how God answered his prayer. So Jeff asked us to lay hands on him and pray for him. Just as I was finishing the prayer the doctor walked back into the room and gave us almost the exact diagnosis we were asking the Lord for.

I know there were many people praying for Jeff last night and I am grateful that God chose to act in the way he did.