Sports : Hockey Player, 15, Killed by a Puck

A 15-year-old boy was killed by a hockey puck that struck him in the chest as he sprawled on the ice during a high school hockey game, school and police officials said today.

Police said Jeffrey L. Merrill, a sophomore at Goodrich High School, fell to the ice Tuesday night during the game and was struck in the rib cage by the puck. The boy was rushed unconscious to a hospital, where he died of cardiac injury, a school official said.