BECKET, Mass. - A bus carrying a team of American Hockey League players, flipped on Interstate 90 in western Massachusetts early Thursday, sending five men to hospital, including two Canadians.

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Jonathan Paiement shown here during his time with the Lewiston MAINEiacs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on October 11, 2004.

Photograph by : Getty Images

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At about 3:30 a.m. local time, a westbound coach transporting the Albany River Rats home from a game in Lowell struck a guard rail and rolled, said Massachusetts State Police Trooper Lavoice, who would give his first name. 

He said all 28 players and staff and one driver were transported to hospital.

"Three people were seriously injured, two had neck problems and the rest were minor," said Lavoice.

Jonathan Scherzer, a spokesman for the Albany River Rats, said five people were still in hospital on Thursday. He confirmed two are Canadian. The others include two players from Minnesota and a radio announcer.

The team is the top AHL affiliate for the National Hockey League's Carolina Hurricanes.

Nicholas Blanchard, 21, of Granby, Que., is one of the players in hospital with undetermined injuries. He was a sixth-round pick of the Hurricanes in the 2005 NHL entry draft.

The other Canadian player is from Montreal. Local media identified him as Jonathan Paiement, 23, who was drafted by the New York Rangers in 2004.

Scherzer confirmed some of the players had broken bones, but did not know which ones.

He said John Hennessey, a former play-by-play analyst for the New Jersey Devils, is also one of the people that is still in the hospital, said Scherzer.

Scherzer said the players won't be speaking to the media until Friday.

"They need some time to adjust to it. You know all the action occurred at 3 o'clock in the morning and they were back here by 11, so that's a lot of hours and they are just trying to get their head back on their shoulders," he said.

Police are investigating, but Lavoice said it was snowing and the road conditions were very poor at the time of the crash.