An official mourning to commemorate Pavol Demitra, 36, one of Slovakia's best hockey players of the last two decades, who died in a plane crash in Russia on September 7 will be held in Trenčín at 18:30 that day, Richard Nemec, the spokesman for Trenčín local government told the TASR newswire.
Demitra was a member of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team of the Kontinental Hockey League. The team's plane crashed near the city of Yaroslavl, and took the lives of the entire team, apart from one player who is reported to be in critical condition.
According to Nemec, the commemorative event was organised by Demitra's former team Dukla Trenčín, following a spontaneous activity launched by fans on Facebook, TASR wrote.
A candle was burning at the Dukla secretariat in the late afternoon while management of the club was about to hang a black flag at the hockey arena. Demitra played for Dukla before departing for North America to play in the National Hockey League in the early 1990s.
During the NHL lockout in 2004/05, Demitra returned to Dukla and set a league record in the number of points scored in one season - 99 points in 66 games.
