BIDDEFORD — Just like they did probably thousands of times before, Brian Dumoulin and Trevor Fleurent spent a couple hours on Saturday evening skating around the Biddeford Ice Arena — and this time they did it to try and save another rink that helped shape their hockey careers.
The two professional hockey players hosted a fundraiser at the BIA on Saturday to raise money for the historic West Brook Skating Rink, which was unable to open last year and is in danger of closing after nearly 100 years of operation.

“I think between the Biddeford Ice Arena and West Brook Skating Rink, those are the two ice rinks that I can attribute a lot of my love for hockey to,” said Dumoulin, who has won two Stanley Cup championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The event, which was sponsored by Weirs Buck GMC, let skaters of all ages pay $20 to skate around with Dumoulin and Fleurent, who is a member of the Maine Mariners minor league hockey team. The fundraiser brought in more than $2,000 for the outdoor rink.
“I learned to skate at West Brook. I learned to skate there with my father and brother, so it means a lot to come back here and raise money to get it going again,” said Fleurent, who was teammates with Dumoulin at Biddeford. “West Brook honestly was the place to be growing up. I remember in middle school, we would have morning practices (at BIA) and then Friday nights the entire team was back at West Brook skating again — a lot of good games, a lot of fun at West Brook.”
Dumoulin was happy to return to Biddeford to help the historic rink.
“It’s great for Weirs and for (Biddeford Youth Hockey Association) to have this event here and try to raise money for a rink that I grew up playing on,” added Dumoulin. “It’s really good to come back here, but also it’s sad that we’ve got to try to save it and try to get it back to what it was. It’s just a place where, whether you’re a hockey player or not, you can go and skate and have fun and that’s what we did when we were growing up.”
State Rep. Marty Grohman was thrilled to see Dumoulin and Fleurent back in Biddeford for such a great cause.

“I think it’s awesome, just the commitment that they have. I think just the dedication they’re showing to come back here and be (devoted) to their community, I mean it’s such a Maine thing and such a Biddeford thing, I think it’s great,” said Grohman.
Grohman isn’t a Biddeford native, but once he moved to town in 2000 he quickly found out how special the West Brook Skating Rink is.
“I’ve always been a pond hockey skater guy, so I just kind of gravitated to West Brook. It’s such a community institution and it’s a place where the second you put that open sign up, cars start pulling into the parking lot,” said Grohman, who has shared the ice at West Brook with the two pros. “I think it’s funny that I was skating there and I’m like ‘these kids are good,’ and I’m not realizing who I’m playing against.”
Grohman wasn’t surprised to see Dumoulin, Fleurent and the entire Biddeford community come together to save the local landmark.
“We come together around this kind of stuff in Biddeford and it’s just a great feeling. We put these volunteer events together, people show up and they know what it means,” Grohman said. “We’re coming up on a 100 years of skating at West Brook Skating Rink and we don’t want to let that die. It’s great to see so many people so dedicated to it.”
Biddeford resident Travis Roy was thrilled to bring his sons — Austin and Ethan — to the Biddeford Ice Arena on Saturday evening.
“They love it. They’re having a great time and obviously we want to come out and try to support (the West Brook Skating Rink),” said Roy, who is an assistant football coach at Biddeford High. “Brian’s great. He went out and Ethan was laying on the ice and (Brian) went out and picked him up and talked to him. They are both really excited to be here.”
Roy is happy to have role models like Dumoulin and Fleurent around to help motivate his sons.

“It’s absolutely great. They like to see kids from here be able to make it,” said Roy, who is a Bruins fan but lost his sons to Dumoulin’s Penguins. “They are Pittsburgh fans and I can’t get them to change over to Bruins fans at all. Once they had that experience, you know it’s just all that.”
Dumoulin loves to come back to Biddeford and skate with his young fans.
“It’s really cool. Just skating around this rink, especially with all these kids, it reminds me when I was there age and skating around and didn’t know any better and just loved to go out there and get on the ice,” Dumoulin said. “I just skate around there with a smile on my face with how fortunate I’ve been and how excited these kids are to be out there and skating around the ice. Like I said it just brings a smile to my face.”
Fleurent echoed that sentiment.
“It’s great to give back. Like I said I was there as a kid, so to be able to skate with kids and talk to them and just (answer) any hockey questions they have is great,” said Fleurent.
The former Biddeford Tigers, who won two state titles together, were thrilled to team up one more time.
“It’s awesome. I actually skated with Trevor a couple weeks ago at the University of New England, just me, him, his brother and a couple of my friends. It’s always special to come back here and see those guys that I played high school hockey with and grew up playing here,” said Dumoulin.
The Penguins defenseman wants to see the West Brook Skating Rink open for the next generation of hockey players — because you never know what young skater will turn out to be a two-time Stanley Cup champ.
“Any one of these (kids) could be me and Trev and (go on) to play professional hockey,” said Dumoulin.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.

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