Colin Dorgan, who lost three loved ones in a mass shooting at a Rhode Island hockey game last month, scored in overtime Wednesday in Blackstone Valley Schools' 3-2 victory over Portsmouth in the state ice hockey semifinals.
With the score knotted 2-2 during four-on-four play in the second overtime, Dorgan scored on a breakaway, sending his team to next week's Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL) Division II boys ice hockey championship.
His mother, Rhonda Dorgan; his brother, Aidan Dorgan; and his grandfather Gerald Dorgan were killed Feb. 16 in a shooting at Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket.
Shooter Robert Dorgan, 56, Rhonda Dorgan's ex-husband, who also went by the first name Roberta, died by suicide during a struggle with bystanders.
Dorgan's goal Wednesday night sent the crowd at Providence College’s Schneider Arena into joyous celebration.
"I'll tell you right now, there was not a dry eye in the stands when that happened," RIIL Executive Director Michael Lunney told NBC News on Thursday.
Lunney, a former basketball coach and athletic director at Portsmouth, said he could feel the entire Ocean State celebrating with Dorgan.
"It was just really emotional," he said. "And I think the whole state needed that after what happened last month."
BVS will play Lincoln High School on Wednesday at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence. The puck is set to drop at 4 p.m. ET.
BVS is a co-op of several schools. Rhode Island allows small schools, which don't have enough players to form single teams, to combine their squads.
Dorgan is a senior at North Providence High School, and his BVS teammates include players from Saint Raphael Academy, Smithfield High School, Johnston Senior High School and Providence Country Day School.
