ST. LOUIS – Tragic news affects people in many ways.

For that reason, University of Maine men’s hockey coach Tim Whitehead chose Thursday afternoon not to share with his players some horrible news involving his family.

Not until after the Black Bears had dropped a 4-2 decision to Michigan State in their NCAA Frozen Four game did Whitehead reveal that his mother-in-law, 57-year-old Debra Smith, had been killed that morning in an automobile accident on her way to watch UMaine’s game at the Scottrade Center.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that, according to police, Smith was lying down in the back seat of a 2001 Ford Explorer driven by her husband, Timothy Smith, 57, about 5:30 a.m. Thursday on Interstate 70 near Springfield, Ohio, when he lost control on an icy bridge overpass, slamming into a concrete retaining wall and then veering back into the westbound lanes of the highway. The SUV was then struck by a tractor-trailer truck also traveling westbound.

Debra Smith was flown by emergency helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, where she died, police said.

Timothy Smith and another passenger, Brad Smith, 34, were taken to the hospital but their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, according to police.

The driver of the truck was not injured.

Timothy and Debra Smith are from Medina, Ohio, west of Akron.

Whitehead declined after the game to comment on the tragedy, but the university later issued a brief press release.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to Dena and Tim and their families,” UMaine president Robert Kennedy said in the release, speaking on behalf of the university community.

The University of Maine provided no other information and requested the privacy of Whitehead and his family be respected at this difficult time.