Nearly a month after losing his mother, brother and grandfather following the Feb. 16 shooting during a Pawtucket, Rhode Island, high school hockey game, Colin Dorgan sent his team to the state title game with a double-overtime goal with 48.1 seconds remaining.
After Portsmouth nearly scored on a wrap-around to win it, Blackstone Valley went on the counterattack. Dorgan, who was stuck up ice, was wide open in the neutral zone. That’s when Camden Governo fed him a pass, and Dorgan skated in alone and went five-hole to put the team into the state championship game for the second time since 2024 with a 3-2 win.
Dorgan called the goal the “greatest moment” of his life afterward. It was his third in his past two games after he netted a pair last week. The senior had only scored twice during his entire high school career heading into the Rhode Island state playoffs.
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Colin made sure Rhonda, Aidan and Gerald Dorgan were close to his heart as he wore a patch bearing their initials.
“It’s absolutely surreal what’s been happening,” Dorgan said afterward, via the Providence Journal. “I really love my boys, my team and I think we’re really bonding together. And I think now, out of all times, is a perfect time to just bear down together and push through. And I think these goals aren’t coming just for myself. I got to get the pass before I could shoot the puck. I think it’s really a team effort, and I think we’re all there for each other truly.”
Blackstone Valley head coach Chris Librizzi told WPRI that once he saw Dorgan was open at center ice, he knew something special was about to happen.
«No matter what we do now in the final game, that right there, he’s going to remember that for a lifetime,» Librizzi said. «We’re not done, there’s a destiny for us.”
Dorgan’s mother, Rhonda, and brother, Aidan, were killed inside Dennis M. Lynch Arena during the team’s senior night in February. Gerald Dorgan, Rhonda’s father, died from his injuries a week later. Linda Dorgan, Colin’s grandmother, and a family friend, Thomas Geruso, were wounded. Robert Dorgan, Colin’s father, was identified as the shooter and died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“We have to stick together,” Dorgan said. “It’s a hard time for everyone. We have each other’s back and we truly love each other. … These are my brothers.”
Dorgan and No. 5 Blackstone Valley will face the No. 2 Lincoln Lions next Wednesday in the state championship game.
