NEWTON, Massachusetts — In the Boston College Eagles hockey team`s locker room in Newton, Massachusetts, a prayer board holds three names that were added before this season and are still there.
Tony Voce
Johnny Gaudreau
Matthew Gaudreau
Tony Voce, a standout forward for the Eagles around the early 21st century, twice earned the team`s MVP award. Sadly, he died of a heart attack last summer at 43 years old.
Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau also passed away last summer, a few weeks after Voce. Johnny, 31, was two years older than Matthew. Both were star hockey players at Boston College – and they died in a manner that mirrored much of their lives.
They were inseparable.
They were killed while riding their bikes on a country road in southern New Jersey, struck by a man allegedly driving under the influence. Witnesses say the driver was aggressively trying to pass another vehicle when he hit the Gaudreaus. Johnny and Matthew were celebrating their sister`s wedding that weekend. Both of their wives were pregnant.
When news broke of the deaths of Johnny, a prominent NHL player and seven-time All-Star with Calgary and Columbus, and Matthew, who had become a coach, the hockey community was stunned. People worldwide, even those unfamiliar with hockey, were saddened. It was an incomprehensible loss – two young, athletic men with their lives ahead of them. Their wives were widowed, their children, both born and unborn, were left fatherless, and their families were heartbroken.
At Chestnut Hill, the pain was profound and remains. The brothers were pivotal figures in one of college hockey`s most successful programs. They left a significant legacy at Boston College, and their sudden loss has challenged the living to find meaning in the tragedy.
Jerry York, the Eagles` head coach from 1994 to 2022, stated, “Some things are just unexplainable. You can look for reasons, but they remain unexplainable.”
York won five national championships as a head coach, four at BC, his alma mater. The most recent one might be the most memorable, largely due to freshman Johnny Gaudreau`s goal that secured the championship game against Ferris State in 2012.
York still gets excited thinking about it.
York recalled, “I was on the bench late in the game, protecting a one-goal lead with the national championship on the line. I was thinking, `Alright, Johnny, just dump it in and get off.` With two minutes left, from a coach`s perspective, the best play was to get it deep and change lines. But he held onto the puck, went right through two or three players, and put it top shelf. I said, `Oh, Johnny, good play.`”
In fact, that goal is widely considered one of the greatest moments in college hockey history.
Unlike his brother, Matthew Gaudreau wasn`t an immediate sensation at BC. Size was a factor. Johnny was slight – about 5-foot-9 and 150 pounds in college, but Matthew was even smaller – around the same height and, according to York, only about 110 pounds as a freshman (listed at 135 on the team roster). However, his toughness was remarkable.
York said, “It was his ability to get up after some of the most vicious, bone-rattling hits I`ve ever seen in hockey, and keep playing. It happened many times throughout his career. He was just a tough, hard-nosed kid.”
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 the Gaudreaus` time at Chestnut Hill. He heard the terrible news early on the morning of August 30 from Ted Donato, his counterpart at Harvard.
Brown said, “Just such a loss. They were really special kids. Anyone who knew them couldn`t help but smile whenever they saw or interacted with them. Always so positive, so happy. Great smiles, great energy. It`s just tragic to lose two quality people like that so young.”
Brown continued, “You never saw one without the other, they were as close as brothers could be. They really loved spending time together.”
Brown`s team has been ranked No. 1 in the country for most of the season and begins their quest for a national championship on Friday at 2 p.m. ET (ESPNU), playing Bentley in a regional semifinal in Manchester, New Hampshire.
For the Eagles, honoring the Gaudreaus and Voce has been a key part of their mission.
This honoring includes a pregame ceremony in November, patches worn by players on their uniforms, and hanging Johnny`s Team USA jersey in the locker room at the World Junior Championships in Ottawa, where six Eagles represented the U.S. and won gold medals.
Eamon Powell, a graduate student and Hockey East all-star defenseman from upstate New York, like most of the current team, didn`t know the Gaudreaus personally. However, they are still in his thoughts.
Powell said, “I think if you asked any guy if we are playing for them and trying to win for them, they would 100 percent say yes because at the end of the day, you play here for four years, but once you put that jersey on, you never take it off. And I think they would say the exact same thing if they were here right now.”
For Powell, it`s about the passion with which the Gaudreaus played, the bond they shared, and the suddenness of their deaths. All of this has been a lesson that goes beyond hockey.
He said, “It`s about not taking anything for granted, and cherishing every day you have with each other.”
