SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio – Students met with counselors Monday and beat a muddy path to the wooded crash site in suburban Cleveland where three high school hockey players were killed when their speeding car slammed into trees.

Afternoon rush hour traffic slowed to a crawl as it passed the mangled mass of dead and broken trees where three students from neighboring Cleveland Heights High School were killed early Sunday.

Fellow students parked at a nearby commuter train station and walked about 50 feet to the crash site. They left flowers, hockey sticks, jerseys and notes. Some just stared in slack-jawed silence at the spot where the car driven by Brendon Benner left the road.

"Brendon, I appreciated your help in math class. You were patient with me – as slow as I am," one girl wrote in a note that went on to wonder if Benner was serious about an offer of a prom date.

Benner was killed in the crash, as was fellow senior Milton Carter Jr., 18, and sophomore Kyle Barden, 16. Another teammate, sophomore Greg Uguccini, 15, was in critical condition Monday at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital.

Scott Greggor, 16, a soccer player from Cleveland Heights, was treated and released from Hillcrest Hospital. He went to school Monday and spent most of the day in grief counseling sessions, officials said.

About 90 grief counselors, including psychologists and clergy, offered help to teens and staff members at the 2,200-student school.

"A lot of the students were trying to understand how, at 18, your life can be over," said Darcel Williams, an assistant principal at Cleveland Heights.

Shaker Heights Police Chief Walter Ugrinic said the car was changing lanes and going faster than 60 mph in a 35 mph zone when it ran off the left side of a divided boulevard and went into the wide, wooded median.

Tests were ordered to determine if drinking was involved, he said. None of the five was wearing a seat belt, Ugrinic said. Cleveland Heights-University Heights Superintendent Paul Masem said the students had been at a party before the accident occurred.

In November, school officials had a meeting with the whole hockey team and their parents after complaints surfaced about the hockey players – not necessarily those in the crash – going to parties where there was no parental supervision, Cleveland Heights principal James Cipolletti said.

Cipolletti said such meetings about out-of-school behavior come up a few times a year with various groups, not just athletes.

Michael Dellapina, the Cleveland Heights athletic director, said the hockey team met with its coaches, and decided to go ahead with a playoff game that was postponed because of the accident. The players decided carrying on is what their teammates would have wanted. The game is now scheduled for Saturday.