A regional journalist has written of the emotional impact felt by himself and thousands of hockey fans as players returned to the ice for the first time since the death of their teammate.

Nottinghamshire Live audience editor, Sam Cooper, was at the Motorpoint Arena last Friday evening as the city’s Panthers faced Manchester Storm in the Adam Johnson Memorial Game.

A packed house turned out to pay tribute to their hero, three weeks to the day after the Nottingham player suffered a fatal cut to the throat during a game against Sheffield Steelers.

It was the first time that the Panthers had returned to the ice since the tragic incident and Sam’s coverage gave an insight into the emotion-fuelled evening.

The front page of the Nottingham Post on Monday after the emotional memorial match in honour of Adam Johnson.

An ice-hockey player himself as a youngster, Sam has provided the Nottingham Post and its associated website Nottinghamshire Live with expert opinion and analysis over recent weeks.

Wrote Sam: “I wasn’t at the game in Sheffield that night but, having played the sport for more than 20 years myself, I found myself unable to hold back the tears when I visited the floral tributes outside one of the arena’s entrances a few days later.

“It was exactly the same on multiple occasions at the Motorpoint Arena three weeks on.

“The ice hockey family has shown an incredible amount of unity over the last three weeks and that has helped each of us to understand and try to overcome what happened.”

Monday’s front page of the Nottingham Post carried a poster image of fans at the memorial game with the headline ‘For Adam’.

Sam’s coverage of the night included fan interviews, a colour write-up, and a video which he shot as play stopped for a moment of applause in the 47th minute and chants of Adam Johnson’s name ‘echoed around the arena’.

Added Sam:  “The sell-out crowd created an evening we all needed. We were back enjoying the game we love – the sound of the goal horn as the puck hit the back of the net, the roar of the crowd as a player advances with the puck.

“Adam will forever be remembered in Nottingham – not only through the on-ice tribute and his retired number 47 jersey – but in our hearts and those of his brave teammates every time they lace up their skates. Nottingham, we did him proud.”

The inside pages of the Nottingham Post as the paper reported on the Adam Johnson memorial game.