For 11-year-old Carter Holmes, hockey is everything.
As practice began to wrap up on Friday at the United Center, Holmes was coaxed off the bench by Head Coach Jeremy Colliton and some of the Blackhawks players. Those tentative steps onto the United Center ice were Holmes' first since being cleared to do so a day before.
It was a celebratory return to the game he loves, with a little help from the team he is crazy about.
Holmes was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in June. If it wasn't for hockey, Holmes may never have discovered the dark illness that was taking hold.
"Hockey is what saved him from cancer," said Carter's mother Tricia.
FEATURE: For the Holmes family, hockey helps heal
After his cancer diagnosis, 11-year-old Carter Holmes was worried he'd never play hockey again, but the Blackhawks brought him in for a Make-A-Wish moment with his hockey idol