One by one, they skated to center ice at the Fort Dupont Ice Arena on Nov. 7, Gonzaga hockey players clad in purple uniforms on one blue line, and in white on the opposite blue line. As each player’s name was announced, the members of the school’s two varsity teams clanked their hockey sticks on ice, to welcome each teammate joining them, as the crowd cheered. Behind the net, a purple and white banner with Gonzaga’s logo read, “One Team, One Family.”

But for the defending champions, this was no ordinary game. On this night, the Gonzaga Eagles were playing for their fallen teammate, Dominik Pettey, in the first annual Purple/White inter-squad hockey game honoring Pettey, who was killed in a traffic accident just six days earlier. Pettey was a passenger in a disabled car on the side of the road that was struck by another driver.

Soon they were joined at center ice by Jesuit Father Stephen Planning, the president of Gonzaga College High School in Washington, who offered an opening prayer, as the hockey players lined up on both sides of the priest bowed their heads.

“…We have hearts that are both broken, and full of hope,” the priest prayed. “Broken, because of the loss of our friend and brother, Dominik. Full of hope, because we know that Dom is now fully united with you, his creator. For Dom, the fullness of eternal life has begun.”

The priest prayed that the hockey players would find life and joy in the sport that Pettey played with an exuberant spirit, and that they would find hope and healing through their teamwork and competition. “Keep us united as brothers in all that we do,” the priest said.

On the first day of school after the weekend accident, the entire Gonzaga community had gathered for a prayer service at St. Aloysius Church. 

“The prayer definitely helped. It reminded us that God was with us, and our brother is in heaven,” said Jack Olcott, a Gonzaga sophomore who had attended that prayer service and was now in the ice arena’s stands. Olcott, a junior varsity hockey player, said that Pettey was “a very nice kid” who befriended and looked after him and other underclassmen, to make them feel at home.

Almost immediately after Pettey’s death, Catholic high schools throughout the area offered shows of support, like the banner near the entrance to Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda that read, “Today we are all Eagles.”

Moments before the game, Father Planning in an interview said, “I’ve been truly humbled and impressed by how well our boys have supported each other, through their love for God and each other. They’ve really embodied our motto of being ‘Men for Others.’”

The priest noted how, across the country, Gonzaga alumni joined in prayer at the colleges they are attending, and many, including former hockey players, had flown home to attend Pettey’s Funeral Mass, scheduled for the next day at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The priest said he had even received an expression of sympathy from a Jesuit school in Kenya.

“They’re helping us carry our cross,” said Ridge Slater, a Gonzaga senior and one of the hockey team’s captains, expressing gratitude for the support his school has received in the wake of Pettey’s death.

Slater, also interviewed before the game, noted that he had played hockey with Pettey since they were young boys. “He was a flash of lightning. He was at every end of the ice before you’d blink your eyes,” he said of Pettey. He noted how his teammate and friend brought energy to every game, had an ever-present smile in the classroom and locker room, and celebrated each goal teammates scored “like it was the greatest goal in the history of hockey.”

Pettey played wing on Gonzaga’s teams that won consecutive championships, and he scored the first goal in their championship game during his sophomore year. Slater said it meant the world for the team to honor Pettey by playing the Purple/White hockey game for him. “I couldn’t think of a better way to say goodbye, as a hockey team, and as a Gonzaga family. It’s just the best way to say goodbye to a fallen Eagle.”

A spirited crowd of more than 400 people, including students, teachers, parents and alumni packed the arena, with numerous students wearing T-shirts with Pettey’s name and number 11 on one side, and “Go Gonzaga beat St. John’s” on the other, referring to the school’s archrival, also one of the first schools to offer support after Pettey’s death.

“We love Dom! We love Dom! We love Dom!” students in the crowd chanted as the game began.

As soon as the puck dropped for the Purple/White game, the game progressed at a frenetic pace, with the players’ fast skating and skillful puck-handling mirroring those skills for which Pettey was known. In this game, the teammates became rivals, fighting for the puck, checking one another, sometimes crashing into the boards, all in an effort to win the game for Pettey.

Chris Meloni, one of Gonzaga’s captains, scored the first goal and later added another score for the White team, which raced to a 5-1 lead, with other goals scored by Michael O’Leary, Sean Kim and Jack Sanborn. Terrence Schmutz scored an unassisted shorthanded goal for the Purple squad’s first tally, and later scored again for his team, which fought back to tighten the score at 5-4 after goals by Will Schuler and Ridge Slater. In the hard-fought game’s final minutes, Mackie Wheeler scored on an empty netter to give the White team a 6-4 win.

After the game, Gonzaga’s varsity hockey head coach, Bill Slater, said, “They were doing what they love to do. It’s one big Gonzaga family. Let’s face it, they love each other, but they don’t want to lose to each other.”

The coach said he was proud of his team, adding that an alumnus had noted, “When a team plays for a purpose, it is hard to beat. When a team plays for a person, it’s unstoppable.”

Coach Slater then added, “Every player wanted to win for Dom.”

Gonzaga goalie Dennis De Vol, a senior and one of Pettey’s best friends, said, “It was just fun being out there for him, having a good time…We’re all just there for each other.”

The next day, several of the players would serve as pallbearers at Pettey’s Funeral Mass. On this day, they played for him. “It was tough being out there (on the ice), knowing he wasn’t going to be out there with us. But we were playing for Dom, and we’re going to play every game for him,’ said Terrence Schmutz.

Schmutz, like his teammates, remembered Pettey’s constant smile. “He always had fun on the ice,” said the senior, who during one break in the action pretended his hockey stick was a guitar and acted like he was accompanying “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses as that song blared over the loudspeaker.

Bobby Hally, a former linemate with Pettey on Gonzaga’s hockey team and a 2014 graduate of the school, returned home for the Funeral Mass and watched the Purple/White game, as did numerous other former Gonzaga players.

“He came to the rink every day with a smile, always having fun,” said Hally, who now attends Boston College, where he plays club hockey. One thing he especially enjoyed about the Purple/White game was how, after each Gonzaga player scored, “Guys were doing the ‘Dom celebration.’ He’d go down on one knee and rub the ice. After every goal, that’s what they were doing.”

Like several Gonzaga graduates in attendance, he talked about the brotherhood shared by Gonzaga students and by members of the hockey team. To honor Pettey, he and about a dozen other former Gonzaga students now attending Boston College gathered for a special Mass at the school’s chapel, and then sang Gonzaga’s alma mater together afterward. “The brotherhood is forever,” he said.

 Nearby, Hally’s mother, Deana, noted that at about two dozen other universities across the United States, Gonzaga alumni had done the same thing, just as boys and girls at local Catholic high schools had offered signs of solidarity. On her smart phone, she showed image after image of young men, wearing suits and ties, often holding Gonzaga banners, standing in their university’s commons, holding up fingers for Pettey’s # 11. At the arena, a photo display showed Pettey and teammates on the ice, scoring and celebrating goals and championships. On Hally’s phone, the photos transmitted via social media showed Gonzaga graduates off the ice, celebrating a young man who skated with joyful abandon and who treated classmates like brothers.

“The display of empathy and compassion these boys and girls have shown for each other, it’s his legacy,” she said of Pettey. “His legacy is the love that people found, that’s all I can say.”