Ice hockey player’s family were watching live when freak accident happened

Adam Johnson’s aunt has revealed details about last Saturday (Picture: Jeanine Leech/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The family of Adam Johnson, the ice hockey player whose throat was fatally slashed during a match on Saturday, watched the incident take place on a live-stream, it has been revealed.

Adam, who played for the Nottingham Panthers, was the victim of a ‘freak accident’ when the skate of Sheffield Steelers player Matt Petgrave injured him during an apparent tackle gone wrong.

The match was abandoned in the 35th minute, with all 8,000 spectators asked to leave Sheffield’s Utilita Arena.

Adam’s death was confirmed by his team on Sunday morning.

His aunt Kari told the US Sun she had been watching the clash alongside his father Davey and his grandmother from their home state of Minnesota.

She said: ‘We are broken up and shattered. We’re not doing well at all.

‘We were watching it, streaming it from the computer onto the TV. We saw what happened and we were devastated.

‘We knew right away something was not right, that something was really bad. We could see all the blood and we knew right away it was terrible.’

Kari Johnson with her nephew Adam (Picture: Kari Johnson/Facebook)

Kari said the family was unsure what was happening until one of Adam’s teammates saw Davey trying to reach his son on his phone, and called him.

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Yesterday, the Panthers confirmed they were setting up a fundraising page for the devastated family, with a statement saying the days since the incident had been ‘difficult and deeply emotional’.

Adam’s fiancée Ryan also paid tribute to him with a post on Instagram, which featured the message: ‘My sweet sweet angel. I’ll miss you forever and love you always.’

The 29-year-old had previously played for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL, and had a spell in Germany with Augsburger Panther before moving to Nottingham.

All games in the Elite Ice Hockey League for today and tomorrow have been postponed, with some matches set to take place this weekend with ‘appropriate and fitting tributes to Adam Johnson’, the league confirmed.

However, neither the Panthers nor the Steelers will play their scheduled matches at the weekend.

Speaking to the US newspaper, Kari added: ‘He just really cared about people, and he loved his family and his friends. He would never not talk to somebody because he was a big shot or anything like that.

‘He loved little kids. He just was just a real down to earth guy that had time for anybody and everybody.’

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