Former Teammates See Familiar Fire in Hellebuyck’s Olympic Gold

Zack Kamrass ’15 was up before dawn in Minnesota to watch his former River Hawk teammate, goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, and the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team face Canada in the gold medal game.

As soon as he saw Hellebuyck take the ice, Kamrass had two words for Canada: Good luck.

“I’ve seen that look before, like he has something to prove,” says Kamrass, a defenseman who played with Hellebuyck for two seasons at UML. “When he sets his mind to it, he has this different aura about him. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah — no chance is this one happening.’”

Hellebuyck delivered one of the defining performances in American hockey history, stopping 41 shots in a 2-1 overtime win on February 22 to secure the United States’ first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey since 1980. 

“That’s beyond dreams,” Hellebuyck told reporters after the win in Milan, Italy. “I was definitely in the zone, definitely in a rhythm. I woke up ready to go. Every step I took was the right one.” 

A native of Commerce Township, Michigan, Hellebuyck played two seasons at UML, helping lead the River Hawks to a pair of Hockey East championships and a Frozen Four appearance as a freshman in 2013. He met his wife, Andrea (Fanciullo) Hellebuyck ’16, at UML.

He has gone on to a stellar NHL career with the Winnipeg Jets, winning the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender three times and the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player last season.

Now, he has an Olympic gold medal to add to his trophy case.

“Incredible,” says former River Hawk defenseman Chad Ruhwedel ’15, who overlapped with Hellebuyck during the 2012-13 season. “Obviously, we all know from his time at Lowell how elite of a goaltender he is. His performance is not really a surprise to all his teammates who actually know how good of a player he is, how good of a guy he is.”

Ruhwedel retired last summer after a 13-year NHL career that saw him win a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2017. He watched the game from his home in St. Louis, where he now works as account representative for Rescale, a cloud software company.

He remembers Hellebuyck as being “calm, cool, collected and very clutch” during the River Hawks’ run to the Frozen Four.

“He always made big saves for us. We knew no matter how well the team was playing, he was going to keep us in that game,” says Ruhwedel, who crossed paths with Hellebuyck a few times on the ice during his NHL career.

Beyond the saves, former UML forward Joe Pendenza ’14 remembers Hellebuyck as the teammate who spent two Thanksgivings at his family’s home in Wilmington, playing mini sticks (or knee hockey) with Pendenza’s younger brother.

“He was just such a good guy and a fun guy to be around,” says Pendenza, who watched the gold medal game from home in Naples, Florida, where he works as an associate financial advisor after retiring in 2024 from an 11-year professional hockey career in the AHL and ECHL.

As Canada began turning up the pressure in the second and third periods of the gold medal game, Hellebuyck stopped a pair of breakaways and made an incredible behind-the-back paddle save.

“Connor just did his thing that he did plenty of times for us at Lowell,” Pendenza says. “I've seen him do stuff like that in practice, so I'm not really surprised by any of the crazy saves he makes. He makes that position look really easy at times.”

Two days after winning the gold, the U.S. men’s hockey team attended President Trump’s State of the Union address, where he announced that Hellebuyck will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

“That was mind-blowing,” says Riley Wetmore ’13, a senior captain on the 2013 Frozen Four team. “Seeing that smile on his face was pretty cool.”

Wetmore watched the gold medal game in North Conway, New Hampshire — although he recently relocated to Ontario, Canada, for a general manager role with a water management product distributor.

“It was just awesome being an American watching that game,” Wetmore says. “And it’s great to see someone from Lowell be part of that.”

Kamrass, now an associate marketing manager for Best Buy Ads near Minneapolis, says his phone was buzzing throughout the game with messages from former teammates.

“My resting heart rate was probably through the roof,” he says with a laugh. “At one point, I had to mute the group text just so I could focus on the game.”

For the teammates who shared the locker room with Hellebuyck — and still share group texts, family vacations and the occasional round of golf — the victory felt personal.

“People see what’s in front of them — the goalie that he is,” Wetmore says. “But they don’t see all the work he’s always put in. He represents everything that a River Hawk is.”