Newton, Massachusetts – Boston College has a prayer board in the hockey dressing room of Eagles. Before this season, three names were written on it and remained there.
Tony voice
Johnny gareyu
Matthew Gaudru
Around the turn of the 21st century, Voice was a high scoring eagles forward and doubled from the team MVP. In the last summer, he suffered a deadly heart attack. He was 43 years old.
A few weeks after voice, Johnny and Matthew Gaudaru also died in the last summer. Johnny 31 was two years older than Matthew. Both Boston College had stars on snow – and they died because they lived a lot of their lives.
Together.
He was killed riding his bike on a country road in southern New Jersey, by a person who was allegedly run under influence. According to the witnesses, the accused was carrying out an aggressive manner, trying to move around the other vehicle, and hit Gauderius. At the end of that week, Johnny and Matthew were marrying their sister. Both his wives were pregnant.
When the news broke that one of the most electric players of Johnny-NHL, seven-time all-star-all-star-Matthews with Calgary and Columbus, and who had become a coach, was killed, the hockey universe left again. People from all over the world who did not know anything about hockey were sad and disappointed. A immense disadvantage. Two young, athletic men, with decades of life ahead of them. His wives created a widow. Their children – both were already born and both were on the way – Pitamah. His parents and sisters were destroyed.
On chestnut hill, too, the pain was intense and remains the same. Brothers had important figures in one of the most successful programs of college hockey. At Boston College, he left his points – and his sudden loss challenged life to make an understanding of the tragedy.
Jerry York, head coach of Eagles from 1994 to 2022, said, “Some things are just unclear. I mean, you can see why it is, why is it, but they are just unclear.”
York won five national titles as a head coach, in four BCs, his Alma Mater. The latest may be one of the most memorable, thanks to a large part for the goal that Freshman Johnny Gaudru created the championship game against Ferris State in 2012.
York still lights up thinking about it.
“I am on the bench, the game is late, we are protecting a-gol and the national championship is there for us and I am saying, ‘All right, Johnny, dump it and shut down,” York remembered. “You know, it is two minutes left in the game and the best game from the coach’s point of view was to deepen and change it. And he just holds the clock, goes right through two or three players (through) and keeps it on the top shelf. I said, ‘Oh, Johnny, Good Game.”
In fact, that goal is widely considered one of the all -time highlights of college hockey.
Unlike his brother, Matthew Gaudru BC had a quick sensation. The shape was a factor. Johnny was modest-about 5-foot-9 and 150 pounds in college, but Mathew was even smaller-about a height and said, York said, only 110 pounds as a new person (they were listed as 135 on team rosters). His ruthlessness, however, was away from the chart.
“Just a few of the most vicious, bone-teejaswi hits, their ability to get up in hockey, and play up, and it happened many times in his career, and he is just a hard, hard-nosed child,” said York.
As a senior, Matthew led the team in scoring.
Greg Brown, former BC and NHL Defenseman, who succeeded York as Head Coach in 2022, was an assistant coach during Gaudrius’s time on Chestnut Hill. He heard the terrible news of the morning of 30 August from his counterpart Ted Donato at Harvard.
“Just such a disadvantage,” Brown said. “I mean, really special children. Anyone who knew them, you cannot help, but can’t help, but every time you can smile to see them or interact with them. Just so positive, so happy all the time. Great smile, great energy, great energy. And it’s sad to lose only two quality people like young.
Brown said, “You didn’t see one without one, as any brother could be. They really liked to spend time with each other.”
Brown’s team has spent most of the season as the number 1 team in the country and started its search for a national championship at ET (ESPNU) on Friday at 2 pm, when it plays Bentley in a regional semi -finals in Manchester, New Hampshire.
For eagles, respecting Gauderius and Voice has been a part of his mission.
From a pregem celebrations in November, Johnny’s team in the dressing room at the World Junior Championships in Ottawa to hang the USA jersey, players wearing patch on their uniforms, where six eagles represented America and won gold medals.
Eman Powell is a graduate student, Hockey East All-Star Defenseman from New York’s upstate. Like most of the current team, he did not know Gauderius personally. But still, they are in his thoughts.
“I think every man and every man, if you ask him if we are playing for them and trying to win for them, I would say 100 percent because at the end of the day, you know, you play here for four years, but once you put that jersey, you never take it out,” Powell said. “And I think they would say the same accurate thing if they were right now.”
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For Powell, it is about the passion with whom Gaadras played. The bond he shared. Suddenly of his deaths. All this is a lesson that is beyond hockey.
He said, “It is not taking anything, and every day every day, cherishing each day,” he said.
