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Brett Kulak’s mother called Monday morning to deliver the gut-wrenching news.

Kulak was raised in Stony Plain, Alta., a small town now mourning the loss of one of their own after a misidentification in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash.

Eighteen-year-old goaltender Parker Tobin was initially listed among the survivors of the terrible tragedy but the coroner apologized Monday, revealing he was among the dead and that another player, Xavier Labelle, was in fact fighting in hospital.

“My parents were good friends with his parents, so I can’t even imagine how they’re feeling. It’s just horrific,” Kulak said Monday at the Saddledome, where the 24-year-old defenceman and his Calgary Flames teammates cleaned out their locker-stalls after a playoff miss.

“You can’t take your mind off of it. You keep circling back to it in your thoughts. It’s unthinkable what happened.”

Kulak played minor hockey for a few seasons with Tobin’s older brother, Kaiden.

“I can remember going over to Kaiden’s house when we were younger and playing mini-sticks downstairs with his brother. (Parker) was really young at the time,” Kulak said. “He was always a happy kid, a laughy kid, always smiling and playing with us.”

http://theprovince.com/sports/hockey...d-f7bf92e9a527