It’s only about six miles from Shane Kavanagh’s house in East Providence to Providence College’s Schneider Arena, but to play for the Friars the freshman winger had to travel a lot farther than that.
His journey started with two years at Bishop Hendricken, followed by two years at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass., then three seasons of riding buses in the United States Hockey League with the Dubuque Fighting Saints.
There was heartache along the way.
Kavanagh lost his No. 1 fan, his mother Cindy, in August 2015. She passed away at age 47 after a valiant fight against cancer.