Cedar Rapids RoughRiders’ Fitzgerald cousins reunited on the ice

CEDAR RAPIDS - Teammates. Again.

First cousins. Though way more like brothers.

Not roommates. Just didn’t work out that way.

Oh, well. Can’t have everything.

“I don’t know,” Brendan Fitzgerald said with a smile. “If I’d have lived with him that might have been living dangerously.”

Riley and Brendan Fitzgerald have lived in separate billet homes this winter as members of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. Not a big deal since they are together, which means everything to them.

The Fitzgeralds grew up in the Boston suburbs, part of a family that’s tight and every bit about hockey.

Brendan’s father, Tom, played over 1,000 games in the National Hockey League and is general manager of the New Jersey Devils. Riley’s dad, Scott, is director of player personnel for the San Jose Sharks.

NHL players Kevin Hayes, Matthew and Brady Tkachuk are cousins, as is Keith Tkachuk (the father of Matthew and Brady), who played over 1,200 NHL games and is a member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. Brendan’s brother, Casey, is a defenseman for the Buffalo Sabres and another brother, Ryan, was a Boston Bruins draft pick who plays for Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League, the sport’s top minor league.

“I don’t even know what to say, how to put it into words,” Riley Fitzgerald said. “It’s just kind of like a lifestyle. We all play hockey, and the ones who don’t play anymore still work in it. It just brings so much joy to our family.”

“Being from a hockey family, we’ve just loved hockey at every point in our lives,” Brendan said.

The boys are the same age (19) and spent so much time together as kids, living only about 15 minutes apart. They’d always seem to be at each other’s homes.

In fact, Riley said he had his own bedroom at Brendan’s house, where he’d stay on weekends.

“He had older brothers, so when one moved off to college or something, another one would move into his room,” Riley said. “Then I moved into his.”

The cousins played hockey together every step of the way, too, until veering apart as teenagers. Brendan went to prep school (The Governor’s Academy in Massachusetts) and then joined the RoughRiders last season after the club traded for his United States Hockey League rights.

Riley spent last year at the Boston Hockey Academy, an academic-training program for aspiring players.

A defenseman, Brendan returned to Cedar Rapids this season. He’ll eventually head off to the University of New Hampshire.

A winger, Riley got an invitation to tryout over the summer with the RoughRiders as an undrafted player in the USHL. He impressed enough to stick around.

“It was one of those things where you’ve got to make the team,” Riley said. “So I was kind of always on alert that anything could happen. But (Brendan) helped me a lot with advice and stuff. We both knew that we worked very hard this summer, along with all the other guys, and were both confident that we were going to play together. That’s just a mindset, right?”

“It has been awesome,” Brendan said. “We grew up together, I played with him for probably 12 years in youth hockey. We parted ways in high school, and we never really knew if that would be the last time playing together.”

Turns out it wasn’t.

Brendan has two goals and 15 assists in 20 games, a noticeably improved player in his second USHL season. He’s out of action for a couple of weeks with an ankle injury.

Riley has two goals and three assists in 22 games, as he continues the adjustment to a new and higher level. He popped home a goal in C.R.’s most recent game last Saturday against Dubuque.

The RoughRiders have a home-and-home series with Madison this weekend, playing Friday night in Wisconsin and Saturday night at ImOn Ice. They have won three in a row and four of five.

“Just being out here from day one has been awesome,” Riley said. “Seeing him at the rink every day again, we were both super pumped.”

This reunion definitely has been super special.

“He kind of drifted away from me, you could say, in the hockey world,” Brendan said. “Then this happened. It’s just like old times. And it’s awesome.”

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