The hockey community is in mourning after three junior players on the Southern Alberta Mustangs team died after a crash near Stavely, Alta., on Monday.
Two of the players — Cameron Casorso and JJ Wright, both 18 — were from Kamloops, B.C., a city of around 100,000 people in the B.C. Interior.
The third player, 17-year-old Caden Fine, was from Birmingham, Alabama.
Their team says the three were heading to practice at the time of the crash, which involved a semi truck carrying gravel, according to police.
Here’s what we know so far about the crash, who the players were and the reaction pouring in from across Canada and the hockey world.
All three players were in their first season with the Southern Alberta Mustangs. Casorso was a goalie, with Wright and Fine both playing on the forward line.
Wright and Casorso both grew up playing on teams within the umbrella of the Kamloops Minor Hockey Association, which said in a social media post that they had found a second hockey family at their new club.
‘A sad day’: Kamloops minor hockey president reacts to fatal crash
Association president Nathan Bosa said that his son was roughly the same age as the players, and there was around 1,300 kids playing in the association, which would be hit hard by the news.
“You would think that, you know, with that many kids, there’d be a lot of distance between the players,” he said.
“And it’s simply not the fact … the kids know each other, they support each other.”
Both of the Kamloops players have family in the community, with Wright playing on the association’s teams from 2011 to 2025 and Casorso from 2012 to 2025, Bosa said.
“They were a tight-knit group,” he added.
Wright played on the Chase U18 Outlaws last year, according to the Chase Minor Hockey Association.
“JJ wasn’t just a teammate — he was a part of our hockey family,” the association wrote on social media.
Blake Linquist, who played with Wright in Kamloops, told The Canadian Press his former teammate was a great player who had a good sense of humour and cared for those around him.
“He would always like to throw jokes and make everyone else laugh,” the 16-year-old said. “He was honestly a best friend on and off the ice.
“He was the best person you’d ever meet.”
The Birmingham Bulls in Alabama have also shared more information about Caden Fine, the U.S. player who was killed in the crash.
The club says the former #22 player for the Jr. Bulls team brought “an infectious smile to the locker room and undeniable grit to the ice.”
Claresholm RCMP say a semi truck heading north and carrying a load of gravel collided with a small passenger vehicle heading east at the intersection of Highway 2 and 55 Avenue.
All three occupants of the passenger vehicle died at the scene, according to police.
The driver of the semi — a 40-year-old man from Stavely — escaped with minor injuries. The exact cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Across the hockey world, people have been united in expressing grief and solidarity with the Southern Alberta Mustangs and the players’ families and friends.
Messages of tribute have poured in beyond the hockey world too — with everyone from Prime Minister Mark Carney, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith expressing condolences after the players’ deaths.
Bosa is asking people across the country to put a hockey stick out in memory of the players lost.
