Grand Rapids/Greenway’s Ryleigh Sherlock Recovers From Skating Accident to Score Game-Winning Goal

Sherlock and the Lightning now get set for the state tournament which will take place March 18th in Moorhead.

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. – You hear it all the time that hockey players are just built differently. And that sentiment rang loud and clear at a recent youth hockey tournament.

Two weeks ago, ninth-grader Ryleigh Sherlock was playing with the Grand Rapids/Greenway 15U team when she fell down on the ice and accidentally cut her wrist with her own skate. Her coaches took her out immediately and her mom used the lace from another skate as a tourniquet before taking her daughter to the emergency room.

“I was kind of in shock so I was really just laughing at the time. I never experienced anything like that. I got lucky that it didn’t really cut through too much and didn’t hit an artery or anything major like that,” said Sherlock.

Sherlock would receive eight stitches and head back to the rink the same day to cheer for her team in their second game. Just over a week later to the shock of everyone, she returned to practice just in time for the regional tournament where she would score six goals in five games, including the overtime winner in the championship game.

“It was pretty unreal. Scoring the game winner to go to state was kind of crazy after not being able to practice or anything right before that. I love hockey. It’s my thing so I had to stay positive throughout all of it to just like keep pushing through it. So it was really just the only choice I had at that point,” Sherlock said.

Sherlock and the Lightning now get set for the state tournament which will take place March 18th in Moorhead.