BIDDEFORD — The ice is out at Biddeford Ice Arena, with seats and tables set up instead on the rink’s concrete floor. But there is a still a glow to the old barn.
On the entrance to Arena Drive, there is a new message on the sign at the intersection of Route 111: “Congrats Brian Dumoulin Stanley Cup Champ.”
It was here that Dumoulin first learned to play hockey. Now he stands at the pinnacle of the sport – and his hometown is basking in the achievement.
Dumoulin, a defenseman for the Pittsburgh Penguins, became the first Maine-born player to win a Stanley Cup championship when the Penguins defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-1 Sunday night in California. Pittsburgh won the series in six games and Dumoulin got to lift professional sport’s most coveted trophy over his head, kissing it twice in his brief skate.
“When we were kids, we would do the same thing, pretend to lift the Stanley Cup,” said Scott Callahan, who grew up with Dumoulin on Village Lane in Biddeford. “To see him actually do it was pretty amazing.”
Dumoulin was traveling back to Pittsburgh on Monday and was unavailable for comment, but he told reporters after Sunday’s victory what it meant to represent Maine.
“I remember playing back at Biddeford High School and it’s just cool to be able to share that experience with them,” he said. “I know they’ve been watching me throughout my career.
“I’m proud to be from Maine and it’s a cool feeling.”
Championships have followed the 24-year-old Dumoulin throughout his career. He won two at Biddeford High (2007, 2008) before leaving to play for the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs, a junior hockey team, in his senior year. He then won two NCAA Division I championships at Boston College, leaving after his junior year to turn pro.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Trevor Fleurent, a University of New England senior who won two state titles with Dumoulin at Biddeford High. “Brian is living the ultimate dream of any hockey player. He’s won at every level. That’s something you dream about.”
It isn’t often that a Maine native reaches the top in any professional sport. Dick Capp of Portland and Deering High is the only Maine native to play on a Super Bowl champion (Green Bay, 1968). Freddy Parent of Biddeford and Sanford (1903 Boston Americans) and Bill Carrigan of Lewiston (1915, 1916 player/manager of the Boston Red Sox) are believed to be the only two to play for a World Series champion. No Maine-born player has played for a NBA champion.
That Dumoulin has done it doesn’t surprise those who watched him growing up.
“There is nobody I’ve coached that has worked any harder, respected the game any more or appreciated the process of what it takes to get where he wanted to get,” said Jamie Gagnon, his coach at Biddeford and now the coach at Thornton Academy in Saco. “I don’t think his success is by accident.”
Dumoulin averaged 29 minutes and 23 seconds of ice time in the Stanley Cup finals – second only to fellow defenseman Kris Letang. And, of course, he scored the game’s first goal in the Penguins’ clincher Sunday.
In the playoffs he averaged 21 minutes, 31 seconds (third on the team) and had two goals and six assists in 24 games. That after he had just 16 assists in 79 regular-season games.
Dumoulin was drafted by Carolina in the second round in of the 2009 NHL draft, the 51st player selected. But he never played for the Hurricanes. After winning his second NCAA championship with BC, he signed with Carolina in April 2012. Two months later, he was traded to Pittsburgh.
He spent most of the next three years playing in the AHL – only 14 NHL games over that time – before playing in his first full NHL season this year.
“This is a tremendous accomplishment, given that he’s coming from a state that isn’t perennially known for producing a lot of hockey players that get to that level,” said Eric Weinrich, who grew up in Gardiner and played 17 seasons in the NHL as a defenseman. “It must be the thrill of a lifetime. And the fact that he was a great contributor to the success of the team was also great to see. He played with tremendous poise and he looked like a veteran out there.
“It was pretty obvious, if you watched closely, that he had no trouble handling the pace of the game. He’s really smart with the puck. His biggest strength is that he’s a really good puck mover. When you get to that point of the season, anybody with that ability is going to stand out. He certainly did.”
Weinrich, now a player development coach for the New Jersey Devils, never played in a Stanley Cup Final. While with Chicago, he got to the conference finals in 1995 but the Blackhawks lost to Detroit in five games.
Dumoulin was a standout at any sport he tried growing up. Fleurent talked about playing floor hockey in the basement of his house – “With Brian on my team we never lost a series in the basement,” he said – and playing Little League baseball against him. Travis Guay, another former Biddeford teammate of Dumoulin’s, raved about his pitching. “He was born to be an athlete,” said Guay. “When he pitched in Little League, he just slayed kids at the plate.”
Dumoulin gave up all other sports after his freshman year in high school to concentrate on hockey. “We all told him, ‘Dude, you’re crazy,'” said Callahan, who now lives in Old Orchard Beach. “But it paid off for him.”
At Biddeford High, “it was like men against boys at times,” said Dennis Walton, the school’s athletic director. “There were times when we were down or things weren’t going well and he could just take over the game by himself, even from the defensive position. You just knew there was something different about him.”
Gagnon said he had the vision and ability to distribute the puck even then. He could skate better than anyone. And he was big back then. Dumoulin now is 6-foot-4, 220 pounds.
“And there were the intangibles that set him apart,” said Gagnon. “He was a true student of the game and would spend an hour or two after practice drawing up potential scenarios that might happen. He couldn’t get enough of the game. He had incredible poise and maturity for a young player.”
“He was just a normal kid,” said Callahan. “When we played sports he was competitive but he was a great guy. He would give me rides to practice sometimes. He helped everybody.”
Now everyone is wondering when he’ll bring the Stanley Cup back to his hometown. Whenever that is, said Walton, it’ll be a big celebration.
“This is a state story,” he said. “It’s just extra special that he’s from Biddeford.”
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