Icers lose Bursich for up to six weeks

It was a complete microcosm of the Icers' season to date.

A little over 12 minutes into Friday night's game against Buffalo, Icer forward Ed Bursich received the puck and skated toward the Thundering Herd zone with 1,055 rabid fans -- gaining more and more decibels as he closed on the Buffalo goal -- cheering him on. He crossed the blue line looking to pass the biscuit off to a line mate, but he saw nobody open.

Bursich fell to the ice. The clock stopped ticking. The crowd, gripped with concern, stopped cheering.

Bursich lay on the ice for several minutes until two of his teammates helped him off. The Icers went on to win that game 15-1 but suffered a huge loss in the process.

Bursich suffered a tear in his medial collateral ligament (MCL), and doctors expect him to be unavailable to the team for four to six weeks.

"It's a terrible loss to a great player," forward Tom Westfall said. "Ed has had a great season."

The MCL is the ligament that connects the bottom inside of the thigh bone to the upper inside of the shin bone. This ligament prevents the inside of the knee joint from becoming unstable.

Until his injury, Bursich, a 6-foot, 205-pound junior from Philadelphia, was the Icers' fifth-leading scorer with 27 points on 10 goals and 17 assists. His offensive production will certainly be missed by his teammates.

"To me," forward Alon Eizenman said, "it's particularly acute because he played on my line and he wasn't just a tremendously gifted player for me, but he really kept me in the game and I'm gonna miss him a hell of a lot, even more then I think the team will miss him. He's a leader and a talker and everyone really looks up to him.

"Every time I see him, I'm sad because I really want him back in the lineup. I miss him already."

Bursich's injury is just another in a long list of bumps and bruises that have put Icer players on the shelf this season. Forward Cam Brown will miss a couple of more weeks nursing a separated shoulder, but Jonathan Dohanich is on the verge of returning to the lineup, and C. J. Patrick will start practicing this week.

"He's (Patrick) going to hit the ice (this) week -- no contact," coach Joe Battista said. "Probably after a week of skating and seeing what exertion does, we'll decide on whether or not he can be upgraded to having contact out there.

"He's excited. He seems pretty ready to get back. It's been a while."

With all of these injuries, Battista and his coaching staff have had to play some players who they thought, at the beginning of the season, would get very little ice time. But once everyone returns to the lineup, the Icers will have the advantage of experience and depth on their side, something which can be very useful when ACHA National Championships roll around in early March.

"We know now that even if we get some of those (injured) guys back, if something goes wrong, these guys are ready to play now. They're battle-tested," Battista said. "The toughest decision we're going to have to make if we get everybody back healthy is who gets to play. But that's a nice luxury to have as a coach."