A California girls’ hockey team has stolen the hearts of the Colorado Front Range.
Barely 24 hours after a fatal crash on Interstate 70 killed the father of one player and sent passengers to the hospital Thursday, the players decided to play on Friday morning and won their first game.
The Clear Creek County Coroner’s office identified the deceased as 38-year-old Manuel Alejandro Lorenzana-Villegas of Chatsworth, California. According to the coroner, Lorenzana-Villegas’ wife was one of the passengers who was treated at Denver Health.
Their daughter, a team member, was notified of the death of her father on Thursday.
Colorado State Patrol received the call to respond on Thursday at 8:53 a.m. and the Santa Clarita Lady Flyers 12U first match faced-off at 8:45 a.m. Friday.
Following a moment of silence on the ice, the Lady Flyers skated as if they were on a mission, and beat the Utah Lady Grizzlies 3-2 in an emotional match-up. The girls have three more games left in Littleton as they continue in Western Girls’ Hockey League playoffs. If they win Saturday’s two games, they will be in Sunday’s championship.
The Lady Flyers (blue) pose for a picture with the Utah Grizzlies after the game Friday morning. (Courtesy photo, Todd Stelnick)
Because of the missing players, the Lady Flyers were short-benched, meaning that they would be playing with fewer athletes off of the bench, but a Facebook post noted that “every single stride they take out on the ice, every goal they make and every puck they save will have a special meaning.”
The resilience of the traumatized girls, barely in middle school, was a welcome surprise to head coach Todd Stelnick.
“I let the girls talk it over Thursday night. It was up to them if they wanted to continue to play and they decided they wanted to play for their teammates and their families,” said Stelnick, who added that one of the injured players “showed up in her uniform” Friday morning ready to play, bruises and all.
“She almost scored the first goal!” he said. “We were playing with half of a team and we managed to win.”
Jeff Walker, president of girls’ hockey for the Colorado Amateur Hockey Association, said that the group of 12-year-olds “walked into the area in a fog” but won the game even though they were down several players. Three team members were traveling in the van.
Besides the packed ice arena, the Lady Flyers’ game was followed by tens of thousands of viewers on a YouTube livestream.
A fundraiser created to “help bring the families home” had raised far more than its $30,000 goal by Friday afternoon.
WHAT HAPPENED
Thursday morning’s crash sent the Ford Transit Van spiraling down an embankment.
It happened when a Colorado Department of Transportation snowplow driver lost control while westbound on Interstate 70 just east of Loveland Pass. The truck plowed through divider cables that can stop cars, but not multi-ton trucks, jumped the median and caused a chain reaction of crashes on the eastbound lanes, according to the Colorado State Patrol.
CSP Sgt. Ivan Alvarado said that the accident is still under investigation.
Eight passengers in the family vehicle, including four children and three adults, were taken to Denver Health by ambulance after the crash.
An additional adult was taken by helicopter to Denver Health’s trauma center with critical injuries and another adult man declined medical attention, according to the releases. There were a total of 10 people in the van.
The plow also hit a Toyota Tacoma, sending it through the median and into a BMW driving westbound, according to the releases. The occupants of those vehicles did not report any injuries.
A Colorado Department of Transportation snowplow crossed a median and hit a van carrying 10 people on Thursday on Interstate 70 east of Loveland Pass, according to the Colorado State Patrol. (Courtesy of Colorado State Patrol)
Photos provided by CSP show the CDOT truck lost its plow during the crash. They also show the van lying on its side several feet off the right side of the roadway.
The interstate was closed in the eastbound direction at Silverthorne for much of Thursday as crews responded to the crash.
The Lady Flyers will play their second game against Mountain Select, girls from the Western Slope on Friday afternoon at 4 pm at Littleton’s Ice Ranch at 841 South Park Drive.
Stelnick is grateful to the Colorado community, which has embraced the team as its own. CSP troopers brought teddy bears to the crash scene and fed the team a pizza dinner Thursday night.
A hockey stick and candle pay tribute to Manuel Alejandro Lorenzana-Villegas, 38, of Chatsworth, California, who died in a crash on Interstate 70 Thursday when a snowplow hit a van carrying several players with the Santa Clarita Lady Flyers. (Courtesy photo, Todd Stelnick)
Outside of the team locker room Friday, a sole hockey stick leaned against the door, illuminated by a candle in remembrance of Lorenzana-Villegas and the family members who were injured.
Denver Gazette reporter Michael Braithewaite contributed to this story.