Ex-NHLer on Russian meteor: ‘I was terrified’

Former Atlanta Thrashers goalie Michael Garnett, currently plying his trade for KHL club Traktor Chelyabinsk, said he was ‘terrified’ of the meteor that exploded over Russia on Friday morning.

“My whole apartment was just bombarded,” Garnett told Chris Kitching of CP24.com. “It was so loud, it was this huge bang. I jumped out of bed and I was terrified.”

Chelyabinsk is situated near the Ural Mountains, approximately 950 miles east of Moscow.

The meteor caused significant damage to Traktor’s arena — the Traktor Sport Palace — according to multiple reports.

The KHL has addressed the situation and released the following statement on the league website:

The meteor shower which struck Chelyabinsk and its environs has also caused some disruption to the hockey season schedule.

The emergency services have confirmed that the walls of the Arena Traktor were among those structures to suffer damage, and therefore large-scale events at the stadium have been postponed.

The sporting facilities will undergo an inspection by experts to assess the readiness of the arena to return to full operational use.

Traktor, which has already been assured of a top-four spot in the KHL’s Eastern Conference, was set to begin the playoffs with home games on Feb. 21 and 22.

The team is on the road for its final regular season contest, so its remaining schedule will not be interrupted.

As for Garnett, his building was damaged but he managed to avoid injury.

“My light fixtures were shaking, one of my vents blew out and there was debris on the ground,” he told CP24. “I didn’t know what was happening.

“I was just scared.”