Colin Dorgan stood before a loud crowd in Providence after Blackstone Valley Co-op’s long, exhausting march to a state championship: the team won the Division 2 boys’ title 3-2 over Lincoln High School on Wednesday, closing a weekslong season shaped by grief and a fatal shooting at an ice rink. The celebration unfolded in the Amica Mutual Pavilion, even as three seats that would normally have belonged to Dorgan’s mother, brother and grandfather remained empty.
The weeks leading up to the championship had already tested whether the season could continue. Dorgan, a high school senior, and his Blackstone Valley Co-op teammates had been playing the Feb. 16 game in Pawtucket when the shooting erupted. Police identified Robert Dorgan as the shooter, and authorities said the attack was targeted; they said Robert Dorgan killed Dorgan’s mother, Rhonda Dorgan, and his son brother, Aidan Dorgan, and later died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
After the shooting, the team grappled with grief and trauma while trying to keep moving forward. Librizzi, a retired firefighter who has coached hockey for more than 30 years, said he struggled with what to do in the aftermath, and he led the team through a break that included 10 days of counseling sessions. He also gave each player the option of not returning to play, while encouraging players who stepped away to still come to the bench or stands to support the team. Librizzi said that despite initial hesitation, every player came back, including Dorgan, who took the longest to decide.
Dorgan described returning to the ice as difficult but not impossible, and he said his support network helped him get off the couch and push forward. He credited his sister, Ava Dorgan, who was at the Feb. 16 shooting but was not injured, as key to his recovery process. Dorgan pointed to a heart patch sewn on the front of his jersey, which he said carried the initials of his lost family members.
Throughout the playoffs and the title run, Dorgan said he carried his family members with him in a way that helped him keep going. “Throughout all of the playoffs, even this game and the overtimes, I truly felt it in my heart and my soul that they’re still with me,” he said, adding, “I love them so much.” He later looked ahead beyond the final buzzer to what healing could mean for the rest of their lives.
The championship game itself delivered the kind of dramatic finish that turned grief into a moment of catharsis for the team and the community that has stayed close. The crowd applauded, cried and held its breath for tense regulation and a series of overtime periods. Dorgan tied the game and then pushed it through four overtime periods before Blackstone Valley’s Jaxon Boyes scored the winning goal, ending the long struggle on the ice.
The title drew national attention after Dorgan scored a game-winning goal in double overtime in a playoff game earlier this month, a performance that helped propel the team to the championship. As the team celebrated Wednesday, Librizzi said the outcome did not erase what the players still had to face after what happened in February. “We’re all still struggling with it,” Librizzi said. “We just need to be family with each other, we need to be supportive of each other moving forward and to heal from this.”