Jovan Dennison was sprawled motionless on the ice. 

After taking a hit from behind during a tournament game in Buffalo, the ninth-grader had no feeling in his arms or legs. Shock muted him. The adults circled him spoke in hushed tones about the next step.  

“When I first got hit, and I was laying on the ice, I couldn’t move anything,” Jovan said on Saturday afternoon. “And all I thought in my head was please come back to me,” Jovan continued. “I was just praying that it would all come back, and it slowly did.”

Gage Dennison, Jovan’s father, reacted like any parent watching a game does when they see an injury; he tried to see who the injured player was. 

“When you initially see something like that, personally I don’t go to a level-ten right away,” Gage said. “I think ‘oh, he got hit and it hurt and he’ll get up.’”

Gage’s demeanor changed when he hit him that the player on the ice was Jovan and that he wasn’t getting back up. 

“I was moving towards the glass to look down on him and see how he was doing, and then realized it was my own son.”

A fortunate intervention by an orthopedic surgeon that happened to be at the game changed the course of action about how to remove Jovan from the ice. 

“The EMT knew that he could move his arms and legs, and actually suggested that we get him up and get him off the ice,” Gage explained. “I’m really thankful that an orthopedic surgeon was there because he said we’re not moving him. Get a (body) board and call 911. I called 911 while I was on the ice standing right next to him.”

From the time Jovan went down until the family ended up at multiple emergency care facilities, the Dennison’s were still unaware of the injury’s severity. 

“It’s one of those things where you’re talking to him, you see him moving, he’s conscious,” Gage said. “We didn’t realize even at that point the extent of the injury.”

A trip to the Buffalo hospital revealed a fracture Jovan's T4 Thoracic vertebrae, at which point the hospital staff sent the family to a facility equipped to make a more thorough diagnosis. 

Further evaluation led to the to the discovery that Jovan had fractures in three different vertebrae. 

Had the fractures been pushed a millimeter or more in any direction, Jovan would have been paralyzed.

“When it really hit us is when the neurosurgeon came out to review the information with us and said that we had narrowly avoided a complete catastrophe,” Gage said.

“It’s one of those things where when he said that, you emotionally just kind of break down, because you realize how lucky he is and how lucky we are.”

Jovan will wear a neck brace for eight to twelve weeks, and as a result, will miss trips to Germany and Arizona for select soccer tournaments in February. The freshman member of St. Louis Park's varsity soccer team said that the toughest part of his recovery would be that he would have to sit still as his body heals. 

“I like to be active and run around and stuff,” Jovan said. “My mom and dad said to me that (I) gotta take it easy, and it’s going to be a long recovery, but you just gotta lie down and get better.”

Hockey is no longer a part of Jovan's future. 

Gage said that the outpouring of support has been incredible, with associations from across the state, including Minnesota Hockey, have reached out with encouraging words. 

“It’s been humbling and overwhelming just how much everyone cares,” Gage said, emotion catching in his voice. “It’s really a community, and it’s really been eye-opening and heartwarming to see complete strangers calling us or sending us cards or packages. I don’t know how we’ll ever thank everyone.”

Perhaps the Dennison’s best way to say thank-you to the hockey community is to share the perspective gained through coming so close to a life-altering injury. 

“They’re kids, and they have lives,” Gage said. “It’s just a hockey game.”