A motorist was killed and a passenger badly hurt in a single-vehicle crash early Sunday near a park in St. Paul, authorities said.

The car hit a tree shortly before 1 a.m. in the 700 block of Cherokee Heights Boulevard, leaving both men pinned in the vehicle, according to police. That's near Cherokee Park and just east of the Mississippi River.

Driver Samuel D. Gottfredsen, 23, of St. Paul, was killed, said police spokesman Steve Linders.

The passenger, 21-year-old Cole Nicholas Lucken of St. Paul was taken to Regions Hospital and was being treated for serious injuries, Linders said.

Police are looking into whether "any type of [drug or alcohol] impairment was involved" or whether speeding was a factor, the spokesman said.

Gottfredsen and Lucken attended Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights and played hockey there together.