Bruins Party in the Streets

Ben Cooke holds the cup over his head in celebration at the Bruins parade in Summerside on Saturday.

By Ryan Quigley

Journal Pioneer

The streets of Summerside were coloured black, gold and silver on Saturday as Boston Bruins fans took to the streets to celebrate the Stanley Cup victory as National Hockey League champions.

Dozens of fans in jerseys ranging from former Bruins great Bobby Orr to current captain Zdeno Chara met at the harbourfront celebrating with each other, showing off cars sporting Bruins memorabilia.

At about 4 p.m., Roger Ahern, the event’s organizer, led the crowd of Bruins fans down Granville street to the Maid Marian’s restaurant.

The die-hard Bruins fans were treated to a rendition of the Dropkick Murphy’s song “Shipping up to Boston” with the lyrics “Bring the Cup Home to Boston” instead, while the play-by-play of some of the Bruins’ goals could be heard in the background.

Adam MacQuaid, defenseman for the Boston Bruins and a Prince Edward Island native, was unable to make the parade but spoke to the fans via a phone call with Ahern

“Thank you so much for being Bruins fans,” said MacQuaid.

A Milan Lucic Winter-Classic jersey was then given away by Ahern.

Ahern said that after the idea came when the Bruins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, in the Eastern Conference Final, and the Bruins went to the Stanley Cup final.

“I said, ‘If we got a chance to win the Stanley Cup, I’m organizing a parade,” he said. “A lot of us have been around for a real long time and can’t go to Boston so I said, ‘We’ll have our own here and it’ll be the same except we won’t have the real Stanley Cup.”

He said he had no idea that so many Bruins fans would show up.

“I’m really ecstatic, this is more than I thought,” he said. “I just thought it was a great way for all of us to get together to celebrate probably the neatest victory in a long time.”

Ahern said the emotions were so up and down throughout the playoffs but after a 39-year wait he was happy the Bruins won Lord Stanley’s mug.

“As a fan, it’s as high as it can get,” he said. “(During the game 7 victory) My grandson was with me, my son was with me, my wife was with me as they counted down we just hugged each other and just high-fiving and screaming.”

Chris Ahern, son of Roger, put the music together for the event. He said he was impressed with how well it went.

“Dad put a lot of work into it,” he said. “I’m just glad it all worked out okay. I mean we had a lot of people come out and the weather was great. It was really neat to drive up the street and see people out there supporting it.”

Chris said it was special for him to see everyone who participated come out.

“To be honest you never know what’s going to take place whether it would just be two cars, Dad in one and me in the other beeping the horn and everyone looking at us funny.”