Community Mourns Teen Killed in Freak Accident

A community is mourning a high school sophomore after a hockey game turned tragic. Teddy Balkind was playing in a matchup between his school, St. Luke’s of New Canaan, Conn., and Brunswick School in Greenwich when he fell. Another student wasn’t able to stop in time to avoid him and hit him. The Thursday night game was stopped as soon as the injury occurred, per USA Today. Teddy was taken to a hospital where he died, NBC News reports. “Our community is in mourning,” St. Luke’s Head of School Mark Davis said in a statement.

A statement from the chief medical examiner’s office said the cause of death was a neck wound and ruled it an accident, Greenwich Time reports. The local community gathered to mourn Teddy at a service Saturday morning. Lisa Harrison, who worked at a summer camp Teddy attended said, “He always seemed to enjoy every minute of every day.” The local girls hockey game Saturday was delayed by a moment of silence in his memory. In addition to his local hockey community, the NHL weighed in with a tweet expressing condolences to his family and his community. Many hockey players and fans added the hashtag #sticksoutforteddy in a nod to a recent hockey tradition of leaving a stick outside after the community suffers a loss. (More child death stories.)