The Boston Bruins had special guests at practice on Monday. In February, tragedy struck in Pawtuckett, as the Blackstone Valley Co-op hockey team was playing their senior night, when a shooting took place, killing three family members of Blackstone Captain Colin Dorgan.

The team rallied around Dorgan and won the Rhode Island Division II state championship last week. As part of the celebration, the Boston Bruins invited the team to practice, per Belle Fraser of BostonBruins.com.

“To come up here and to have emotions of joy – it’s great,” Blackstone head coach Chris Librizzi said. “And it started last Wednesday night with the championship game, and it’s carried over to today. They need this, from a mental capacity standpoint, to just get away from all the drama that has taken place. Very excited and happy for them.”

The high school players got to join the Bruins on the bench after practice, tour the facility, and then the Bruins' players chatted with the Blackstone players, taking photos and signing autographs.

“Just to have them here, they were all so excited to see it. To see David [Pastrnak] in the training room just getting a massage – just little things like that, they were like, ‘Oh, wow.’ They were asking about which car he is driving. It was great. That was probably the best moment today,” head coach Marco Sturm said. “For me, that’s why hockey is the best. It’s not just what happened on the ice, but also off the ice. I think it’s just a wonderful thing that these guys have the experience to come here.”

Blackstone coach Librizzi led the team through the tragedy, requiring all players and coaches to have ten consecutive days of counseling, while informing Dorgan he did not need to return to the team. Dorgan returned to the team, though, including scoring a game-tying goal in the championship with just 30 seconds left in regulation.

“If it wasn’t for sports, if it wasn’t for hockey, I don’t know how we would have gotten through this,” Librizzi said. “That was the difference-maker for us.”