Young goalie loses his life during weekend hockey tournament.

The hockey community in the province of Quebec, Canada is in mourning after a weekend hockey tournament ended in tragedy.

Goaltender Zachary Bourassa was participating in a Dek Hockey tournament taking place at Martin-Bergeron park near the Centre Sportif Alphonse-Desjardins (CSAD) in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. It was during that tournament that Zachary suffered what is now being reported as a cardiac arrest, one that unfortunately proved fatal.

He was only 21 years old.

The tragic news was confirmed by his mother in a heartbreaking Facebook post (Translated from French.)

Last night, Zachary left us while practicing his favorite sport. He leaves a giant void around him, he was so young and had his whole life ahead of him. Please watch over us and your beautiful Elo. We love you Zach.

His family stressed to Radio-Canada that everything was done to try to save his life, including the use of a defibrillator which was on hand. Unfortunately efforts to resuscitate Bourassa before the ambulance arrived proved unsuccessful. 

The incident reportedly occurred very early on in the game with his family once again stressing that his death was not caused by the sport that he was playing at the time of this tragic incident.

Much like we have seen recently with the tragic deaths of National Hockey League star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew Gaudreau, the hockey community has quickly come together to create an impromptu vigil for Bourassa. Friends, family, and even complete strangers have left sticks, flowers and other mementos near the area where he tragically passed away.

While the vigil for Bourassa is of course at a much smaller scale than the ones we have seen outside of the Saddledome in Calgary or Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, the one for the young goaltender is no less beautiful. Below you can see an image of just some of the things that have been left to honor young Zachary Bourassa in this photograph taken by Jean-Francois Fortier.

My most sincere condolences go out to the family of Zachary Bourassa, a young man taken far, far too soon.