Canadian Hockey Captain, 20, Dies After Collapsing During Game

A community in Canada is mourning the death of a beloved hockey player who died after collapsing during a tournament.
Eli Palfreyman, the 20-year-old captain of the Ayr Centennials, was in the locker room during a pre-season game when he collapsed Tuesday night, CBC reported. His mother rushed to the changing room, and the team's trainer began to perform chest compressions. His pulse had become faint by the time he was put in an ambulance and taken to a local hospital. He died shortly after.
Palfreyman's parents sat down with his teammates the next day to speak about his impact, Centennials' Vice President Brian Shantz recounted to the outlet.

Per Shantz, his father told told the athletes, "The happiest day in Eli's life was when he was named captain, and he said you cannot take a shift off the rest of the year because Eli's spirit will be pushing you to do your best every shift, and I want to see it."
Shantz added of the emotional meeting, "Then the mother spoke and, you know, the tears were just flowing everywhere when a grieving mother speaks about her son. And instead of going inward, she just talked about us and everything that we did. She was there, she saw it and she just praised us. She said, 'I know how hard you worked to save Eli.' "
His cause of death has not been reported, according to The Spun.