A scary incident took place this morning during Portland Pirates practice as forward Alex Berry severely injured his right wrist that sent him to a local area hospital.

Berry, who is on a tryout with the Pirates, was going into the corner to retrieve the puck when he lost his balance and fell to the ice. He suffered a compound fracture that cut the artery and left a stream of blood across the ice as medical staff rushed to assist him.

Actually, kudos should be given to both Pirates Athletic Trainer Mike Booi and Equipment Manager John Krouse for their quickness in getting Berry off the ice and stabilized before being transported to a local area hospital where he’ll more than likely need surgery. It had the potential to be a very grim situation.

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Update on last night’s exhibition game.

The Pirates and Albany Devils were forced to settle for a 2-2 tie after a series of bizarre events forced the cancellation of the game. The Zamboni ran over a puck during the second intermission, which caused the lower auger to malfunction. After removing pieces of the puck from the Zamboni, it went back out on the ice, but instead of cutting the ice and laying water. It was laying water over snow, which was a scenario made for skiing rather than for skating.

After Pirates GM Brad Treliving and Devils GM Chris Lamoriello talked along with the coaching staff from both teams, it was decided for player safety to cancel the game.

Despite canceling the game, Pirates coach Ray Edwards feels that he got a good look at several players and final cuts will be very difficult to make over the next several days. He pointed specifically to Igor Gongalsky.

Edwards had Gongalsky in training camp last season, but remarked about his on-ice maturity after spending last season under former Pirates head coach Kevin Dineen.

“He’s going to make our final decisions really tough,” Edwards said. “He’s really matured on the ice over the last season. That time he spent here with Dineen has seen his game really blossom.”

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The Pirates made several cuts to the roster on Saturday as Shane Sims, Hans Benson, Chris Clackson, Joey Haddad, Tyler Murovich and David Rutherford were re-assigned back to their respective ECHL clubs.

Edwards said that they’ll be down to their roster by Tuesday with final cuts to come on Monday once Phoenix finalizes their roster.

The Coyotes moved one step closer as they assigned six players to Portland including defensemen Chris Summers and Maxim Goncharov and forwards Andy Miele, Marc-Anthoine Pouliot, Viktor Tikhonov and Brett MacLean.

Pouliot, Tikhonov and MacLean all need to clear waivers before arriving in Portland. In Tikhonov’s case, he has an option to play in Russia if he didn’t make the Coyotes so it still remains to be seen if he’ll report to Portland.