It was a somber scene at the Shakopee Ice Arena Thursday night as friends and former teammates of Mikayla McCarvel mourned the 18-year-old hockey player who died weeks after she was injured in a car crash.
Several hundred people filled the arena bleachers for Shakopee High School’s match versus Eastview. Some wiped away tears as McCarvel’s teammate Lily Schuetz read a remembrance by senior players before the game.
“There is no doubt that Mikayla would light up a room when she entered,” Schuetz read. She said McCarvel had an “adventurous, go-getter spirit.”
Before the game, 17-year-old Amalia Lee, a friend of McCarvel, said it has been a difficult week at Shakopee High School.
“Everyone is kind of struggling right now,” said Lee, who had been on a soccer team with McCarvel years ago.
Lee said McCarvel was the “funniest person ever,” and that she always knew how to make someone laugh.
McCarvel was injured in a two-vehicle crash shortly after 8 p.m. on Dec. 26 at the intersection of County Road 21 and Tintaocanku.
McCarvel and three other 17-year-olds, all from Shakopee, were heading east on Tintaocanku in a compact car when they were hit by a driver heading south on County Road 21 in a midsize sedan. The driver of the car McCarvel was in failed to stop at a stop sign and was struck by the larger vehicle, which had the right of way, police said.
