Ice hockey prodigy dies in match

Cherepanov was one of Avangard's top strikers, scoring again on Monday

One of Russia's most exciting young ice hockey players has died after collapsing during a league game.

Alexei Cherepanov, one of Russia's top strikers, collapsed three minutes from the end of the Avangard Omsk-Vityaz match in Chekhov, outside Moscow.

Cherepanov's heart stopped during the game, officials said. Medics were unable to revive him at hospital.

Cherepanov was the first-round draft choice of the National Hockey League's New York Rangers in 2007.

He had scored earlier in the game, which his club ended up losing 5-4.

"It was really kind of a surreal thing for the players," Cherepanov's agent Jay Grossman was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

"He was skating in on a two-on-one with [former Rangers captain] Jaromir Jagr and then they came back to the bench. Jaromir was talking to him and he told him he has to score on that play. The next thing you know, he collapsed.

"[Jagr] went with him into the dressing room area and they revived him for some time and then he didn't make it," Mr Grossman said.

Cherepanov was pronounced dead some two hours later, officials say. There was no collision that preceded Cherepanov's collapse.

Russia's Sport-Express newspaper reported that the medics who rushed to revive the player had problems with the defibrillator.

The Russian public prosecutor's office said it would open an investigation into Cherepanov's death.