Goalie's spirit endures

Let's be real. When it comes to hockey, I can't tell a puck from a burnt biscuit without taking a bite.

I do know that there's only supposed to be one person in the crease at a time.

When the Junior Checkers of Charlotte play, though, there are always two people guarding the net - yet none of the team's opponents has complained, because the person in the net with Brendan Buckley in every match is his brother, Stephen Russell.

You see, Stephen was the goalie for the N.C. State University ice hockey team. He drowned last July 4 at Jordan Lake. He was 23.

Brendan, 12, told me Saturday that he always feels his brother is on the ice with him, and his father, Brady Buckley, said, "He told me he felt like Stephen was out there with him" later that day when the Junior Checkers played the Junior Hurricanes at the Ice House in Cary.

Brendan stopped 34 shots on goal, and his team won 6-4.

Brendan wears number 20 because, he said, "It was my brother's number," and he plays goalie because his big brother did. That's one way to honor the memory of a young man who seems to have been an exceptional person.

Another way is to name a college hockey tournament after him. That's what the Carolina Hurricanes did this year, renaming their annual Canes Cup college tournament the Stephen Russell Memorial Tournament.

John Chase, the Canes' director of promotions, said NCSU "wanted to keep his memory alive this way and of course, we were very comfortable doing that."

Stephen's mother, Kelly Buckley, said the family, of Charlotte, "had no idea" of the name change. "We were really humbled by how they chose to honor him," she said. "That was really touching."

It was also fitting, because it appears that Stephen affected so many lives during his relatively short one.

"It would appear that he died an old man by the number of people he touched," Kelly Buckley said. "His teammates wore his jersey over their suits" at his memorial service at N.C. State's arboretum, she said, "and guys who played with him flew in from Texas, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Nebraska and Florida at a moment's notice."

"What gave us support were the e-mails and text messages" the family received from Stephen's friends, teammates and hockey opponents, Brady said.

"Hockey people are special," Kelly Buckley said. "They did more than college boys should have to do, really."

"And now they're coming to see a little 12-year-old punk play," Brady said with a laugh.

He counted seven of Stephen's former teammates who came to root for Brendan at Saturday's match.

Kelly Buckley has written a book, "Gratitude in Grief," to help others deal with the grief she felt - feels - about her son's death. The book, though, "is not about death," she said. "We're trying to help others deal with their grief. How you celebrate a life after it's over is a choice. We choose happiness. In this Twitterized society ... sometimes we want to summarize someone's life in one line, [but] there was so much more to that boy than the way he died."