Pittsburgh arena collapses, just missing Ont. hockey team

The "miraculous" timing of a U.S. arena’s roof collapse meant the debris narrowly missed a group of young hockey players, including a team from Ontario, officials said Monday.

The team, made up of seven- and eight-year-old boys from Ajax, Ont., were in Rostraver, Pa., to play against an American team for the championship finals.

The boys were in the dressing room, preparing to leave when "one parent threw open the door, and yelled, `the roof is collapsing, the roof is collapsing, everybody’s gotta get out," Gary Maclean, head coach of the Ajax Tyke White team, said Monday.

"There was this really weird pause after and then another woman said the exact same thing so everyone started to exit the dressing room," he said. "As I got to the top of the stairs and the doors opened, the roof collapsed at that point and the actual pressure inside the building literally launched me out."

Rostraver Police Chief Greg Resetar was one of the officers who arrived after the collapse of the Rostraver Ice Garden.

"It was truly a miraculous thing that it happened when it did, as far as the timing is concerned because it would have been an absolute tragedy," he said on Monday. "When (we) got there, it was very chaotic. Everyone who was there was running out of the building and we were trying to make sure everyone was accounted for."

Dogs were brought in to sniff the area as a precaution, and police later deemed that no one was injured or trapped under the wreckage. The only person on the ice at the time was the Zamboni driver, who was uninjured likely because he wasn’t on the side that caved, said Resetar.

Maclean, who was with his four-year-old son, was one of the last people from the Ajax group to leave the 5,000-seat arena.

The team is comprised of 17 boys, but only 16 were at the tournament. One of them was Maclean’s oldest son, Jackson.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, but early reports suggest large amounts of snow on the roof contributed to the collapse.

"The kids were in shock, I mean everyone was in shock in the parking lot," said Maclean. "It took a seven-hour ride home for me last night to actually be able to talk about it."

Maclean said the team’s management has already arranged counselling for all players, coaches and parents.