The Honor Them Hockey Club is the proud owner of the Tier 7 champion trophy for the Connecticut Hockey League's fall season. But to the Bristol Police Department, it's more about who that trophy honors.
"Tier 7 men's league hockey, but to us it was so much more than that. It was way more than just a game," Bristol Police Detective Nicholas Defazio said.
They do it for Sergeant Alex Hamzy and Lieutenant Dustin Demonte. The two Bristol police officers were killed in the line of duty in October of 2022.
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"Absolutely...always for them," Officer Charles Jacobs said.
A little more than a year later, Hamzy and Demonte's teammates are honoring them in an unexpected way.
"It started as a joke over a pot of coffee. 'We should start a hockey team.' You want to be on the team, you want to be on the team...Yeah, yeah, yeah," Defazio said.
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"Everybody was kind of laughing about it and next thing you know, we got a hockey team going on," Police Chief Brian Gould said.
The majority of that team had no idea what they were doing. They were all first-timers.
"Started a sport on the wrong side of 30," Defazio said.
Even the chief had no prior hockey experience. During the first game, he ended up in the penalty box.
"I was the classic deer on ice, just all over the place. It was great," Gould said.
While admittedly being a total amateur, the chief said his decision to join the team was an easy one.
“Quite frankly, it was in honor of Dustin and Alex. And I thought, what better reason to go out and do something new and try something different?" Gould said.
With that spirit, the team played on, and they started winning.
"It was like 'Hey, we have a shot here of at least getting into the playoffs,'" Gould said.
After the playoffs came the championship. And with each game they played, that promise to honor Demonte and Hamzy remained.
"At the end of the day, it is just a jersey but to us, it was so much more," Defazio said. "They were always with us. You never had to feel like you had to think about them."
Hockey turned into a form of healing. The chief said it's been a positive way to grieve for everyone.
“This is a way to let that anger out, just the frustration and losing friends, not drinking, playing hockey. I’m getting energy out," Jacobs said.
And when they won that championship game 3-0, they say Hamzy and Demonte no doubt played a role.
"Everything they did was exceptional, and we had to be exceptional. I think they gave that to us," Gould said.
They say the trophy is nice, but they aren't stopping there. The winter season starts up in January, and they plan to honor Hamzy and Demonte in the same way as before.
