The NHL has seen its fair share of bad skate cut injuries to star this season, but the most frightening to date came from the Southern Professional Hockey League in a game between the Huntsville Havoc and Peoria Rivermen Saturday night.

Veteran hockey reporter Dave Eminian shared the horrifying events as they unfolded on the ice for the Peoria Journal Star:

Huntsville center Justin Cseter went into the right corner by the Havoc goal, collided with Peoria's Dennis Sicard, and fell onto Sicard's skate as the latter was on all fours, trying to get up.

With his mother, father and grandparents in the grandstand looking on, Cseter -- a Wisconsin native -- skated out of the corner fighting for his life, blood spurting from his thigh and pooling on the Carver Arena ice and players on both teams frantically screaming for doctors, EMT's, begging for help.

Cseter had been inadvertently slashed by Sicard's skate, across an unprotected gap between the bottom of his pants and above his knee pad at 6:27 of the second period.

He made it to the hashmarks in front of his net, sat down hard, then fell onto his back.

The 4,593 in attendance fell silent. Players' calls for help echoed around the arena. A spectator sitting in the first row, on the glass and with a full view of the gore unfolding on the ice, fainted. (UPDATE: team officials late last night said it was believed the fan suffered a seizure while the drama was unfolding on the ice).

Medical personnel rushed to the ice to tend to what doctors described as a 1 ½ inches deep cut, six inches wide that cut into Cseter’s muscle, but thankfully missed his artery. He was rushed to the hospital via ambulance after 30 minutes of attention from medical personnel inside the arena according to Emenian.

The game was suspended by the Rivermen, with players from both teams saluting the crowd before the left the ice.

Here is video of the incident as it unfolded. WARNING: The images in this video are graphic and may be found disturbing. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

Video Credit: Peoria Journal Star.

The efforts to assist Cseter were also caught on tape. He was surrounded by a number of athletic trainers, doctors and paramedics before eventually being wheeled out of the rink. 

According to Huntsville Havoc head coach Glenn Detulleo, Cseter received stitches and staples to close the gash. He also shared with Eminian his gratitude for the work done to assist the forward and members of his family, who unfortunately were in the building to witness this.

It sounds as though, despite the gruesome outcome, Csester is very lucky.

These sobering skate cut incidents throughout this season have been alarmingly regular. It's one of those injuries that is incredibly difficult to prevent as they are always accidental. There's not much that can be done at that point, but it shows the value of having trained medical personnel on site, regardless of the level of play.