Published: November 12, 2009 11:26 pm      

Chiefs player's injuries not as bad as feared after crash into boards

JOHNSTOWN — The Johnstown Chiefs received some positive news on Thursday, and it had nothing to do with wins or losses, goals or saves.

Chiefs captain Mike Knight’s prognosis is much better than initially feared after the veteran defenseman had a violent head-first crash into the boards late in Wednesday night’s 6-4 win over Reading at Cambria County War Memorial Arena.

Knight lay face-down and motionless on the ice for approximately 10 minutes. He showed no signs of movement as four physicians and trainers tended to him. Knight was placed on a backboard with his neck and limbs stabilized before he was taken to an ambulance at the Zamboni entrance.

Many people in the building called the head-first crash one of the worst they had seen. Among those was ECHL Commissioner Brian McKenna, who was on hand to participate in the annual Veterans Day celebration during the game.

Thursday afternoon, Chiefs GM Bill Bredin had an optimistic report.

“He had a CT Scan, an X-Ray and a MRI, and all were negative,” Bredin said, explaining that the initial reports indicated no bones had been broken in the neck or spinal cord areas. “It left him without feeling temporarily, which he has already regained. We’re told he should get some mobility back over the next couple of days.

“He did experience some numbness and a lack of mobility. He’s regained a lot of that feeling, thank God.”

Knight, a popular player in the locker room and in the Johnstown community, will be out of the lineup indefinitely.

“It is too early to say. If I had to guess, I’d say he’d be out at least a couple weeks minimum and then depending on where he is physically and psychological he could play a few weeks from now or a few months from now,” Bredin said. “It’s impossible to say.”

Whether or not Knight would play again wasn’t the primary concern right after the incident in which Reading’s Olivier Labelle and Knight tangled just before Knight went airborne into the boards.

“I visited Mike (Thursday) morning and he told me it wasn’t a dirty hit,” Bredin said. “He said they both made contact and his feet got tangled up. The contact from his opponent caught him off guard in that it was from behind. He was already going at full speed and it propelled him with more thrust into the boards. It’s an unfortunate and scary thing but thankfully he’s going to be OK. He was in good spirits (Thursday). He was very positive. He wanted me to deliver a message to the team which I did.”

Chiefs coach Jeff Flanagan said the locker room was more upbeat Thursday. In the minutes after Knight was taken off the ice on Wednesday, Reading scored a short-handed goal to tie the score at 4-all. The Chiefs seemed shaken by the loss of their teammate. Johnstown responded with major power-play goals by Connor Shields and Troy Schwab to seal the win.

“The guys are happy and positive that he’s doing OK,” Flanagan said. “We’re feeling pretty excited that nothing real bad happened. It’s a good feeling to know that. It was real tough Wednesday night for the guys finishing the game and not knowing. Thursday we had a good practice. We had the information that he was doing well. All around it’s a good thing.”

The Chiefs acquired defenseman Chris Zarb from the Gwinnett Gladiators for future considerations on Thursday. The 6-foot-4 blueliner was a fifth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2004.

This season Zarb appeared in six games with the Gladiators, recording three assists and four penalty minutes. Last season, the Waterford, Mich., native played in 37 games with the Mississippi Sea Wolves and also appeared in four games with the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL.

“Zarb is an experienced guy,” Flanagan said. “He’s a big body. He’s a huge defensive presence and he’ll slip right into our lineup.”