Report on Kivlenieks death now with county prosecutor
Oakland County prosecutors are reviewing the report on the death of Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks, who died July 4 in a fireworks accident at the Novi home of former Red Wings goaltender Manny Legace.
The police report was closed after a weeklong investigation revealed no wrongdoing.
“We are not asking for any criminal charges,” Novi Police Lt. Jason Meier told the Free Press on Monday. “But we did give it to the Oakland County prosecutor to review, just because of the high profile nature — to get a second set of eyes on it, make sure we didn’t miss anything.”
Kivlenieks, 24, died trying to avoid a fireworks shell while escaping a hot tub. Legace, the Blue Jackets’ goalie coach, had a party at his home to celebrate the wedding of his daughter, Sabrina. Legace, who played for the Wings from 2000-2006, has not commented.
Kivlenieks was struck by a shell. An autopsy conducted July 5 by Oakland County chief medical examiner Dr. Ljubisa Dragovic showed the shell hit Kivlenieks in the left side of his chest. Paramedics arrived at the home at 10:13 p.m. and found Kivlenieks unresponsive. He was transported to Ascension Providence Hospital in Novi where he was pronounced dead, Meier said.
Blue Jackets president of hockey operations John Davidson called it an “unspeakable tragedy” last week and said the police report would reveal whether anyone should be help responsible.
Meier said there was “none that we could find” when asked if there had been any wrongdoing.
Kivlenieks appeared in two games this season, playing May 7 and 8 against the Wings. He had a 3.09 goals-against average and .899 save percentage in eight career NHL games.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.