Airdrie youth hockey team honours junior players killed in Alberta highway crash

A youth hockey team from Airdrie is paying tribute to three junior players who died in a highway collision in southern Alberta by wearing and sharing memorial stickers during an upcoming tournament.

The under-13 AA Airdrie Lightning team will place the stickers on their helmets and hand them out to opposing teams while competing in Regina this week. The stickers feature the jersey numbers of the players and the logo of the Southern Alberta Mustangs, the junior team the victims played for.

The initiative was organized by a Lightning parent who ordered close to 100 stickers with the goal of keeping the players’ memory present on and off the ice. Team manager and assistant coach Matt Caron said the gesture is meant to encourage young athletes across teams to remember the lives lost and reflect on the close-knit nature of the hockey community.

Eighteen-year-olds JJ Wright and Cameron Casorso of Kamloops, B.C., and 17-year-old Caden Fine of Alabama were killed Monday while travelling to a Mustangs practice. Their vehicle was crossing a highway near Stavely, Alta., when it collided with a gravel-hauling semi truck.

Since the crash, the families and the Southern Alberta Mustangs organization have received an outpouring of emotional and financial support from across the province and the wider hockey world. The memorial effort by the Airdrie Lightning adds to a growing list of tributes highlighting the impact of the loss on players, teams, and communities connected through the sport.