For the smallest state in the country, Rhode Island has certainly turned out more than its fair share of great hockey figures – on ice and off. And behind the scenes there have been a number of key figures who ensured our players got the competitive edge they needed. To the Rhode Islanders who chose [...]
When visiting the Boston University athletics website, the entry on their Terrier hall-of-fame goalie, long-time NHL executive and Rhode Island native, Jack Ferreira, reads: “Ferreira, who was legally blind and nicknamed ‘Mr. Magoo’ by his teammates, gave up just 2.0 goals a game and recorded eight shutouts.” While his stats are exceptional and indisputable, the [...]
Like so many other Rhode Islanders whose hockey careers are highlighted by both on- and of-ice achievement, it is impossible to categorize Henry J. Coupe, Jr. as simply either a “Player” or “Pillar” member of our nation’s hockey community for he excelled at both. Born in 1921 in Cranston, “Hank”, as he was known, was [...]
The 40th anniversary of what might be the greatest upset in sports history – the United States’ victory over the Soviet Union’s thought-to-be-invincible hockey team in the 1980 Winter Olympics – just passed, and the memories came flowing back as one news outlet after another reached into its vaults and resurrected moments of what has [...]
Art Lesieur is a Providence Reds and Rhode Island hockey legend. With his skillful, imposing blueline play and his rights owned by the Montreal Canadiens, local fans and opposing players, alike, assumed he was Canadian. To the contrary, he was born and raised just 20 miles away in nearby Fall River, MA on September 13, [...]
If you're a hockey fan, odds are overwhelming that you’ve heard the story about David Ayres and #EBUG: https://www.nhl.com/news/hurricanes-emergency-backup-goalie-against-maple-leafs/c-315410618 And a great story it is. However, it's one we've heard in these parts before. You'd have to have seen a few faceoffs to remember this one. 20-year-old George Dermksian, who played goal for Central High School -- which hasn't [...]
If you're a fan of hockey in Rhode Island, you no doubt know a lot about the Bennetts. Here's something you probably don't know: In 1980, two of them -- Curt and Harvey Jr., their NHL careers completed -- went to the Far East and played two seasons of professional hockey in Japan. See? Told you. [...]
It isn't often that a stick to the face alters the course of history. The course of a game, maybe. The course of someone's dental profile, possibly. But history? Well, according to Sean Braswell of the website ozy.com, there's a good chance the story of modern aviation began "with an unfortunate incident during a game [...]
No, that's not a Photoshopped image. That really is Johnny Pesky in a Bruins uniform next to Milt Schmidt. We all associate Pesky, of course, with baseball in general and the Red Sox in particular: Player in the '40s and '50s, manager in the '60s, TV/radio announcer in the early '70s, coach from the mid [...]
That was the opening sentence of a Providence Evening Bulletin story in February 1973, and for a couple of glorious weeks that aptly described North Providence High School’s Ron Bruno. And the Rhode Island high school hockey world basked in his radiated glory. Bruno, a senior left wing for the Cougars in '73, scored two [...]
