Trainers rig tourniquet from hockey stick to save life of minor league player with leg gash (VIDEO)

A minor league hockey player, who suffered a six-inch gash in his leg during a game, forced the arena's medical staff to improvise with the materials on hand to save his life while blood pooled on the ice Saturday night.

Huntsville Havoc center Justin Cseter went down on the ice during the second period with blood spurting from a one-and-a-half inch deep gash on his leg, causing the entire arena to fall silent.

The Peoria Star Journal reports that Rivermen forward Dennis Sicard had accidentally fallen on Cseter, slicing six inches of Cseter's unprotected skin with his skate and causing the gruesome wound.

Almost immediately, trainers from both Huntsville and Peoria were slid across the ice, trying to reach Cseter and keep him from losing too much blood.

Rivermen goaltender Eric Levine rushed over with towels to press to the wound to staunch the bleeding as Havoc winger Corey Bellamy knelt over Cseter and talked to him to keep him alert.

A doctor at Cseter's side asked a player to break a hockey stick in half before using it to wrap a tourniquet around his thigh as an EMT brought over an IV as a fan fainted during the commotion.

(WARNING: Videos might be disturbing)

"Cseter was pretty calm, really," Levine said. "He was asking a lot of questions, wanted to know what was happening to him, he said 'Let's all be on the same page here guys.'"

Brutal game tonight @Peoria_Rivermen game #thatshockeyforyeah pic.twitter.com/7WpqT0kIIa
— Jaylyn (@JaylynBland) October 26, 2014

The skate had cut into muscle, but missed the artery. The blood was still thick on the ice when doctors finally wheeled Cseter off a half hour later to a round of applause.

The head coaches of both teams had a conference call with the president of the Southern Professional Hockey League, Jim Combs, who gave the okay to suspend the game.

Thankfully, the team's Facebook page said Cseter was released later from the hospital and boarded a bus for the nine-hour trip back to Huntsville.

Players on the ice called the experience "terrifying."