Victims Mourned

Its very sad and painful news for hockey team in Russia. An estimated 100,000 people flocked to a memorial ceremony Saturday in the western city of Yaroslavl for the victims of the Russian plane crash that devastated a top ice hockey team.

"For the first time in my life, I had trouble entering an ice arena," Vyacheslav Fetisov, a former NHL star who is chairman of the Continental Hockey League, said at the ceremony. "It's an inexplicable tragedy."

Mourners including prime minister Vladimir Putin poured into the team's arena to lay flowers near coffins containing remains of players and staff of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team. Many were draped in the team's red, white and blue colors.

Wednesday's crash of a chartered Yak-42 jet killed 43 people and was one of the sports world's worst aviation disasters. Of the 45 people on board, 36 were Lokomotiv players, coaches and team officials, including many European and former NHL players.

The crash shocked Russia and the entire hockey community but emotions were especially raw in Yaroslavl, where the team's consistently strong performance in the KHL was a source of great pride. The team had been heading to Minsk, Belarus, to play its season opener.

"It's hard for me to talk because I loved the team so much," said Slovakian national hockey team coach Vladimir Vujtek, who previously had coached Lokomotiv.

The somber-faced Putin walked slowly across the arena, laying flowers at each of the coffins, and several KHL teams traveled en masse to Yaroslavl to attend the ceremony.

President Dmitry Medvedev visited the crash site a day after the disaster, but didn't attend Saturday's ceremony. Many fans had criticized Medvedev for using the arena for an international conference this week, a move that forced the team to fly out of town in the first place.

Fetisov on Saturday renewed a KHL pledge to help rebuild the Lokomotiv team. KHL chief Alexander Medvedev said earlier this week that each team in the league should volunteer up to three players for a new Lokomotiv squad. He said some 35 players already had volunteered.

Two men who survived the crash -- player Alexander Galimov and crew member Alexander Sizov -- remained in critical condition Saturday, both in medicated comas in Moscow. Hospital officials said Galimov had burns over 90 percent of his body.