Members of the East Coast Jumbos and Maine Highlanders line up before a unified game with the Boston Bruins Alumni. Cooper Sullivan / The Times Record

BRUNSWICK — Nearly two years ago, the idea that former Boston Bruins players would come to Maine to participate in a unified game with adaptive hockey teams from around New England was just a fantasy. On Oct. 20, it turned into a reality.

Organized by Unified Special Hockey of Maine, the afternoon charity game at Bowdoin College’s Watson Arena capped off the Witches Brew Adaptive Hockey and Skating Awareness weekend.

Sarah Joliat and her son, Kristian Joliat, both of Unity, first met the Boston Bruins Alumni team during the Frozen Fenway fantasy camp at the 2023 Winter Classic. Kristian was able to skate with former players like Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask, as well as interact with former University of Maine and current Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman.

It was a memorable experience, and one Kristian Joliat wanted to share with his friends back home.

“That was where this whole thing came from,” Sarah Joliat said. “We wanted to be able to include everybody into having that experience that my son got to have with (the Bruins alumni) at Frozen Fenway. If you were here to watch the game, and anybody who was here to watch the game, it was amazing. It was electric. If you saw the looks on the kids’ faces, that was it. That was what my son wanted. That was what we had hoped for.”

Creating opportunities for athletes with intellectual, developmental and physical challenges has been the primary mission of Unified Special Hockey of Maine since Sarah Joliat started the program in 2019.

Kristian Joliat, 32, who has Helsmoortel-Van Der Aa syndrome, a complex neurodevelopmental disorder, started playing hockey when he was 4 years old. He played in inclusive house leagues in upstate New York and northern Virginia, but once he turned 18 and aged out of the youth teams, there was no place for Kristian to continue with the sport he loved. Until the Joliats discovered Special Hockey.

“Our rink (in northern Virginia) was instrumental with pulling together some parents and saying, ‘Hey, they can’t continue to play because they don’t meet the age limit criteria, but we know this is so important to them. We want to start a program,'” Sarah Joliat said.

When the family moved to Maine in 2019, they were shocked to find out there were no Special Hockey programs in the area. Special Hockey, part of USA Hockey, provides people with developmental disabilities the opportunity to play ice hockey.

Kristian Joliat of the Maine Highlanders skates to center ice during introductions. Cooper Sullivan / The Times Record

So, Sarah Joliat went to work. She discovered that a Colby College athletic department member was familiar with the northern Virginia program, and with their cooperation, practices soon began to take place. The team, known as the Maine Highlanders, has since grown from five players to more than 100 players, coaches and volunteers in Waterville, Orono and Brunswick.

“Every time you see these guys out on the ice, they’re smiling,” Sarah said. “Every single one of them. This is what they love. They love hockey. Hockey is their game, so this has been a hard thing for all of these guys who loved the game and never had a chance to play.”

SPREADING THE WORD

Like many other Maine hockey teams, scheduling ice time can be difficult for the Highlanders, especially when early morning or late evening practice slots aren’t feasible for families with certain medical needs.

The already high cost of entry (FloHockey estimates one year of hockey can range from $2,077 to $8,180 between equipment, travel and league fees) becomes even more expensive if any adaptive skating aids, such as a youth sled or adult gait trainer, are necessary.

The Highlanders’ biggest challenge, however, is community support and awareness.

“Most people don’t understand that we exist,” Sarah said. “They don’t know about the program. And if you don’t know to look it up, and you’ve never heard of sled hockey or Special Hockey, which most people up here hadn’t when we first started, you don’t know to look for it. You don’t even know it’s out there.”

While holding a learn-to-skate program over the summer, Sarah met members of the Maine Blind Bears, a Falmouth team for legally blind athletes that features members of the USA Blind Hockey team. Sarah realized the two teams faced similar problems with logistics, funding and overall awareness, so she began brainstorming how to best combat these issues. After reaching out to contacts across New England, a three-day adaptive hockey showcase was organized.

Players from the Maine Highlanders, Great Blizz and East Coast Jumbos attempt to poke the puck away from Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Mullen in Sunday’s unified game. Cooper Sullivan / The Times Record

From Oct. 18-20, the Highlanders were joined in Brunswick by the Blind Bears, the East Coast Jumbos of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, the Great Blizzards of the South Shore and Cape Cod, the St. Albans Leafs of Vermont, and the Northeast Passage sled hockey team from New Hampshire. Members of the Bowdoin men’s and women’s hockey teams, Colby hockey program, Brunswick and Lewiston-Auburn youth leagues and Maine Mariners also participated. The latter hosted a few athletes at their Oct. 19 home game in Portland.

The big draw, of course, was the Boston Bruins Alumni team.

In previous years, the Bruins alumni had participated in events with the Great Blizz, but had never played with or against them. Sunday’s unified game was the first of its kind, according to Frank Simonetti, Bruins alumni association president.

“We believe in the NHL credo of ‘Hockey is for everyone,’ whether it’s sled hockey, adaptive hockey, special hockey,” said Simonetti, who played for the Bruins from 1984-1988. “It’s such a fulfilling sport. It gives you reward, teamwork, camaraderie, fulfillment, something to look forward to. There’s the on-ice time, but there’s also the time before you get on the ice when everybody’s talking, and afterwards, when guys are saying, ‘Hey, did you see that great goal?’ So it’s a bigger experience than just on ice. It’s the teamwork aspect of it. The more people — kids, men, women, boys, girls — playing hockey, the better for the game.”

Even though recent Bruins retirees weren’t present in Watson Arena — Simonetti was asked multiple times about Big Z and Patrice Bergeron’s whereabouts — the interactions on the ice and on the bench were still genuine and enjoyed by all. Ten-year NHL veteran Bob Sweeney became a popular player to be on shift with because of his friendly chirps and on-ice pep talks.

Members of the Boston Bruins Alumni team pose for a photo with special hockey athletes from across New England. Cooper Sullivan / The Times Record

“A lot of these kids are pretty good skaters, too,” said Sweeney, a center for the Bruins from 1987-1992. “The most important part is they’re all having fun and we’re having fun.”

Chris Forget, 20, of the East Coast Jumbos, was beaming after saying he played with three-time Stanley Cup winner and Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Mullen. “Playing in the alumni game is always a dream,” Forget said.

Max Rothbart, 20, echoed his teammate’s sentiment, saying, “It’s just an unforgettable event. It was well put together, just a fun time.”

HOPING FOR MORE

Even before anyone took the ice, Sarah Joliat deemed the three-day event a success.

According to Joliat, Unified Special Hockey of Maine, a nonprofit organization, raised over $10,000 to go toward the purchase of loaner hockey gear and adaptive equipment for its players. Her goal of bringing an adaptive hockey program to every rink in the state also becomes more possible as the number of community connections and relationships grow.

“The beautiful thing about this weekend, that was the huge win for us, was the partnerships that we got with the Jr. Polar Bears, the Maine Gladiators, the (Maine Coast) Storm,” Joliat said. “All of these programs that came together over the weekend, they came in to play with us. … This has really ignited a fire for this area, and it’s trickled up to towards Augusta. We’ve got people reaching out, saying, ‘Oh, how can we be involved?'”

Joliat said she has heard from both the Colby men’s and women’s hockey teams about future collaborations. Simonetti hopes that games between the Bruins alumni and other special hockey programs become “a regular thing.” Kevin Loney, Bowdoin’s assistant athletic director for facilities and event management, also wants to see Bowdoin continue working with Unified Special Hockey of Maine.

“You can’t walk (around Watson Arena and not) see how much fun that people are having,” Loney said. “That experience is just kind of being a part of something special. I think any chance you have to do that, to learn about it and to support it, I mean, anybody who’s got a pulse is going to do that.”

The Highlanders currently practice in Orono on Sundays, in Brunswick on Mondays and in Waterville on Tuesdays. After playing its first organized game against the Great Blizz on Oct. 18, five years after forming, Highlanders players hope that home and away games can soon be added to the schedule.

Brandon Wear, 32, of Brunswick, is most excited about the possibility of more tournaments against other teams, where he can make new friends and watch his current friends and teammates, such as Hunter Coombs, 13, of Hollis, keep scoring goals. Wear preferred playing in the weekend’s A-level game more than in the alumni game, because the goalie was going up against “the best of the best.”

“It’s great, because I got to come out of retirement,” Wear said about being a Highlander. “I haven’t played in like 15 years, now I can play again.”