Bruins Host Blackstone Valley Co-op Team At Skate, ‘That’s Why Hockey Is The Best’

BOSTON –– The Boston Bruins had some special visitors at their practice on Monday at Warrior Ice Arena.

​The Blackstone Valley Co-op hockey team sat on the glass, taking in the NHL skate and cheering as each B’s player got on the ice.

It has been a tumultuous stretch for the Rhode Island high school group. Blackstone captain Colin Dorgan was skating in his “Senior Night” game last month at Pawtucket’s Dennis M. Lynch Arena when his mother, brother and grandfather were killed in a shooting that happened in the crowd.

​The team has rallied around Dorgan since the tragedy, earning its first-ever state title in the Rhode Island Division II hockey tournament on Wednesday at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence. Blackstone continued the winning celebration in Boston.

“To come up here and to have emotions of joy – it’s great,” Blackstone head coach Chris Librizzi said. “And it started last Wednesday night with the championship game, and it’s carried over to today. They need this, from a mental capacity standpoint, to just get away from all the drama that has taken place. Very excited and happy for them.”​

Librizzi’s players joined the Bruins on the bench after practice and toured the Warrior Ice Arena facilities. The B’s congratulated the team on its title victory, and stuck around for chats, photos and autographs.

“Just to have them here, they were all so excited to see it. To see David [Pastrnak] in the training room just getting a massage – just little things like that, they were like, ‘Oh, wow.’ They were asking about which car he is driving. It was great. That was probably the best moment today,” head coach Marco Sturm said. “For me, that’s why hockey is the best. It’s not just what happened on the ice, but also off the ice. I think it’s just a wonderful thing that these guys have the experience to come here.”

Librizzi has been a strong leader for his team through an unimaginable circumstance, requiring at least 10 consecutive days of counseling for both him and his players. He told Dorgan he did not have to return to the season. But the defenseman had other plans.

“He sent me a text on the Sunday night before the playoff game on Friday saying, ‘Coach, I’ll see you tomorrow.’ When he stepped out onto the ice on that Monday, the compete level went up to about 90%. We just tweaked some things to get them to 100%, and we got them there,” Librizzi said.

“To win the state championship with all the adversity they have been through over the past four weeks, for them to come out on top like that and fight through that, they lived by our team motto, which has always been, ‘Don’t give up, don’t ever give up,’ by Jim Valvano. That has been our team motto the last 12 years that I’ve been here.”

​Not only did Dorgan come back, but he scored four goals in three games en route to the trophy.

It was Dorgan who tied the championship 2-2 with just over 30 seconds remaining in regulation, sending the contest to overtime. His teammate, Jaxon Boyes, later had the game-winning goal to secure the victory. A week earlier, Dorgan scored the game-winner in double overtime against Portsmouth in the semifinals, propelling his team to its spot in the championship matchup.

​“For him to have only two goals in his four years of high school, to come into the playoffs and score two goals in the quarterfinal round, to get the game-winner in the semifinal round, to get the tying goal with 30 seconds left in the final game – it was just amazing,” Librizzi said. “There was definitely a higher power helping us through this whole process. For them to believe in that and to push ahead – angels were on Colin’s shoulders that day, and the whole team. They gave us that little nudge.”

​Dorgan’s teammates have helped him through this time, and while their hockey season is coming to an end, he knows they will all stay close forever. Dorgan is a senior and set to attend Bryant University next year, he said.

​“These people right here, they’re really not just my teammates. They’re more brothers to me. We have really come together as one family,” Dorgan said. “All of our connections, our bonds together, and these memories that we’re making – we’re all making them together. We won together, we lost together. We’re all in it together.”

​Jeremy Swayman gave Dorgan a big hug in the locker room, where the Blackstone crew hung out after the skate.

“What they’ve been through – the hockey world is such a tight-knit community. It’s a family,” Swayman said. “Whenever we get an opportunity like this, we really cherish it. It’s so cool to have these guys in the locker room and see their excitement, and really enjoy the good things that hockey brings us every day.”

That community has meant everything to Librizzi, who is still trying to navigate this challenging moment. He and his players will continue to lean on each other, and those in the hockey world, he said.

“If it wasn’t for sports, if it wasn’t for hockey, I don’t know how we would have gotten through this,” Librizzi said. “That was the difference-maker for us.”