For many hockey fans who were fortunate to watch Craig Cunningham play junior hockey it was when his BCHL Trail Smoke Eaters came to play against a lower mainland team in the 2005-06 season.

As a youngster growing up in Trail BC his love of hockey showed from the start and his dream was to one time play in the NHL as other NHL players from Trail have done.

The other players include the likes of Ray Ferraro (1258 games), Shawn Horcoff (1008 games), Dallas Drake (1009 games), Barret Jackman (876 games) and of course former Vancouver Canuck goalie Cesare Maniago who played 568 games managing 4 assists in his career.

Following his time with the Smoke Eaters he moved on to play with the Vancouver Giants under Head Coach Don Hay who helped him focus his career direction.

Other players on the Giants in his first season were Milan Lucic, Cody Franson, Lance Bouma and current Surrey Eagles Head Coach Blaine Neufeld.

The Tucson Roadrunner captain fell to the ice November 19th prior to the start of a game with what was described as acute cardiac arrest.

The following day’s he was kept on life-support system with a team of medical experts working around the clock to keep him alive.

Tuesday of this week he did a phone interview with TSN’s Bob McKenzie and told him “I do feel lucky to be alive it’s taken me awhile to realize what I’ve been through. They explained to me what happened; the doctors showed me video of when I went down on the ice. I, uh, I didn’t know (it was that bad). Now I realize why I’m in such rough shape.”

He (Cunningham ) continued “I do feel lucky. I know that. But at night, I think about it, and it bugs me I can’t play (hockey) again. Hockey is the only thing I’ve ever known. Since I was four years old, the only thing I’ve ever wanted to be was a hockey player. Now I have to move on, focus on something else.

 Thanks are given to the firefighters and in-arena paramedics who began working feverishly to try to save Craig’s life, cutting off his equipment and performing chest compression-only CPR.

His Mother Heather mentioned “It’s the most horrific night of my life when I was escorted down (to ice level) and by the time they took him off the ice, I thought he was gone. To see that, it was absolutely gut wrenching. When I think about it now, I get nauseated. There was so much yelling, screaming and shrieking (from all over the arena). It was just awful.”

When Craig was playing with the Giants we managed to get an interview with him for Delta TV and in a somber moment he mentioned that his Father was killed in an automobile accident in Trail leaving his Mother (Heather) to raise three young children between the ages of four and seven.

He mentioned that as a single Mom she had to hold down several jobs to make ends meet for the Family and he is truly grateful for what she did for the Family.

The hockey world is grateful that Craig is on the road to recovery, but he knows his hockey career as a player is over and for anyone involved in the game, it’s a tough pill to swallow.

Sportswave wishes Craig and his Family all the best in his road to recovery.