Barrie Colts’ Tanner Pearson done for season (UPDATED)

The phrase luck of the Irish is supposed to be meant ironically. If Tanner Pearson and all associated with the Barrie Colts didn't know that before Saturday, they surely do now.

As CTV Barrie reported Sunday afternoon, the Colts leading scorer's season is over due to a broken right fibula that he suffered late in the third period on Saturday.

There is no video on YouTube yet, but it looked grisly. The Colts forward has been a feel-good story in the Ontario Hockey League with the way he hit his stride this season at age 19, making Team Canada and racking up 91 points to lead the Colts in scoring. But he was knocked off balance by a check, causing his ankle to turn in a way it was not designed to turn as he fell to the ice. Pearson could not put any weight on it and was loaded into a wheelchair at rinkside as soon as he was helped into the tunnel.

From Rogers Television's Craig Ripley and The Barrie Examiner's Stephen Sweet:

The Colts were outfitted in special green St. Patrick's Day jerseys, which were auctioned off to fans. Pearson did not appear for the post-game event.

The Colts will face the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors in a first-round series which begins Thursday on their home ice. There will surely be firmer information about when Pearson can return. Barrie is looking to make it three consecutive seasons that the Eastern Conference's third seed, the runner-up from the Central Division, has reached the third round. However, they did go just 2-2-2-0 vs. the Majors and their core group hasn't experienced the post-season together. Now they might have to go in without one of their main cogs.

The broken bone adds another element to the debate over Pearson's draft status, of course. There were already questions about how early a team should go for a player who's productive, but two years older than some of his peers in the class of 2012. Now there's a question of whether the broken fibula would keep him from being unable to move up to the AHL as a 20-year-old this fall, especially if a NHL labour stoppage creates more competition for minor-league jobs. Of course, those are considerations for another day; in the short run there should be some empathy for a promising player suffering such a poor twist of fate.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.