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Hockey family

From left, three sisters — Abby, Jillian and Katie Riley — get ready to drop the ceremonial pucks to initiate the Adirondack Police Hockey Tournament Friday, Sept. 12 at the Olympic Center. The game was between the New York State Police, right, and the Pennsylvania State Police, who won the tournament. The Riley girls and their mother, Heidi, were treated to a weekend vacation in Lake Placid, as the tournament was dedicated to the memory of their father, Ross Riley, a New York State trooper who died in November 2013. They live in Allegany. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID – New York and Pennsylvania state police teams kicked off the annual Adirondack Police Hockey Tournament Friday, Sept. 12, offering emotional support for the family of New York State Police Trooper Ross Riley, who died on the job in 2013. Overnight, however, it was the hockey players who found shoulders to lean on for their own tragedy.

Both teams posed with Riley’s wife, Heidi, and three young daughters – Abby (11), Katie (9) and Jillian (4) – after they each dropped ceremonial pucks around 4 p.m. on the Olympic Center’s 1980 Rink to begin the three-day tournament. Few believed the Pennsylvania State Police would win the trophy on Sunday against the Ontario Provincial Police.

“We thought Pennsylvania was going to get crushed because OPP is very good,” said tournament co-organizer Sean Donovan, a Lake Placid resident and former hockey player who retired as a sergeant from the New York State Police in 2008. “I mean, they’re Canadian. They have to know how to play hockey. It’s the law, you know. But it was a 2-to-1 game.”

And nobody could foresee the tragedy that would wrench the hearts of these Keystone State players when they awoke Saturday morning, hearing the news of two of their fellow troopers being gunned down in northeastern Pennsylvania during a late-night shift change. Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II and Trooper Alex T. Douglass were ambushed outside a police barracks in Blooming Grove, killing Dickson and injuring Douglass.

“They were really down,” Donovan said about the Pennsylvania troopers.

Tournament co-director Sean Donovan helps Katie Riley with her hockey jersey. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

During the tournament dinner on Saturday night, the hockey teams showered Heidi and her children with gifts. The Ottawa Police Department, for example, gave them tickets to a hockey game.

“They live reasonably close to Buffalo, and they’re Sabres fans,” Donovan said. “So they have two hotel suites for two nights in Ottawa in March and tickets to the Ottawa Senators and Sabres game sitting in the Ottawa Senators luxury box, and a limousine back and forth to the hotel.”

It was an emotional moment when it came time for the Pennsylvania State Police to hand out their gifts.

“This one Pennsylvania trooper gave a talk about why he became a police officer, the whole thing about right and wrong, and family, this and that, right off the top of his head and it was awesome,” Donovan said. “It was really very touching. … And then he gave the girls their gifts.”

The Pennsylvania State Police handed each girl a $400 gift card for Christmas shopping.

The Pennsylvania State Police (in black) and New York State Police hockey teams pose with Heidi Riley and her three daughters. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

“They’re close to the Pennsylvania state line, so one of the guys said, ‘If you want to come over to Pennsylvania to shop, we’ll have somebody meet you and escort you around,'” Donovan said.

The Rileys live in the hamlet of Allegany, west of Olean in Cattaraugus County and just north of the New York-Pennsylvania border. Heidi is the New York State Police station commander in Olean.

Ross Riley, 44, died on Nov. 20, 2013 after a training accident. A member of the Special Operations Response Team West, based in Collins Center, he fell 30 feet during high-angle rescue training at Letchworth State Park in Wyoming County.

Ross was a veteran of the Persian Gulf Conflict, serving as a U.S. Marine from 1987 until he was honorably discharged in 1992, and a 17-year veteran of the New York State Police. He worked in Troops A, E and F and became of a member of SORT in March of 2000.

He received a commendation for his service as a member of the Mobile Response Team at Ground Zero following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The three girls pose with Russian Olympic skaters Oleg and Ludmila Protopopov after teaching a figure skating lesson. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

Lake Placid experience

Heidi and her children didn’t travel to Lake Placid to relive tragic memories; they came here to create happy ones with their extended law enforcement family. During their three-day visit, they experienced almost everything they could in the Olympic Village, including a scenic plane ride, tours of the Olympic venues, a bobsled ride at Mount Van Hoevenberg, a gondola ride at Whiteface Mountain and the virtual reality tour at the Olympic Center.

“We did the virtual reality, the bobsled and the ski jump,” Heidi said in the New York State Police box before Friday’s opening hockey game. “They squealed. That was maybe their favorite part of the day.”

Lake Placid was a special place for Ross, who had climbed Mount Marcy several times, and during their visit to the Lake Placid Olympic Museum, Heidi made sure to tell her daughters why the village is a special place in the history of the Winter Olympics.

“I was trying to read all the things in the museum and trying to explain to the girls why the Miracle on Ice was such a big deal and Sonja Henie and all of that,” Heidi said. “The Miracle on Ice I remember. I was a kid (in kindergarten), but I remember.”

Heidi Riley talks with members of the New York State Police hockey team while her daughters take in the scene before the opening game of the tournament on Sept. 12. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

In addition to donating funds to local organizations such as the Bobby Preston Memorial Scholarship, the Adirondack Police Hockey Tournament will contribute to the Ross Riley Memorial Fund.

“I am very grateful that they are all doing this as a fundraiser for my husband’s fund,” Heidi said. “It means a lot that they would take the time and do this in honor of him and for him. It’s very humbling, and it’s very touching to me and to us. … I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the community of Lake Placid.”

On Friday, it was too early to tell what kind of lessons the girls were learning.

“I think they’re getting it while we’re here what a big deal it is to have Lake Placid sort of in our back yard in the state,” Heidi said. “And that’s easier to understand here rather than trying to teach it at home.”

Given the smiles on their faces, it was clear the girls were having a lot of fun in Lake Placid with their new hockey family.

When it came time for Sunday’s award ceremony, Heidi’s daughters were on the ice, handing the Pennsylvania State Police their trophies – one to take home and one that stays in Lake Placid. They were shoulder-to-shoulder, posing for photos with a banner that had Ross Riley’s name on it, leaning on each other, comforting each other after losing family members – fellow troopers – who will never be forgotten.

“I’m walking off the ice with one of the girls, Katie, and I said, ‘Nice weekend. So what do you think? Pretty cool town?'” Donovan said. “She said, ‘No. It’s an awesome town.’ … Heidi said it was great because the girls have a lot of happy memories now to add, and that’s part of what we do.”

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