A tight-knit hockey family planned to celebrate with loved ones this weekend. Instead, they’re planning two funerals

By Ashley R. Williams, Thomas Schlachter, Andy Rose and Jacob Lev, CNN

(CNN) — The night before their youngest sister’s wedding, two brothers and soon-to-be groomsmen from a tight-knit hockey family rode their bikes down a county road not far from their southern New Jersey hometown.

Instead of celebrating this weekend, their family now has two funerals to plan as the sports world mourns.

The sun had set over Oldsmans Township Thursday evening as Johnny Gaudreau, 31, and Matthew Gaudreau, 29, cycled near the fog line along County Route 551.

There were good things on the horizon for Johnny and Matthew, two talented hockey players who tore up the ice for a season together at Boston College before Johnny, widely known as “Johnny Hockey,” would be drafted by the NHL’s Calgary Flames in 2011 straight out of college to launch a stellar professional career.

Their family was expanding. They were ready to welcome another brother into the fold Friday as their sister, Katie Gaudreau, prepared to wed the love of her life in Gloucester City, New Jersey, near Philadelphia.

Matthew Gaudreau’s wife, Madeline Gaudreau, is expecting the couple’s first child, according to an online baby registry for the couple. In a photo posted to a GoFundMe campaign verified by CNN, the former high school hockey coach and future dad proudly held up an ultrasound strip showing his unborn baby boy, Tripp, who is due to be born in December.

On Thursday night, as the Gaudreau family prepared for a wedding, a Jeep driver with the smell of alcohol later detected on his breath, police said, traveled northbound on the same road as the cycling Gaudreau brothers.

Sean Higgins, 43, later told New Jersey State Police he had consumed five or six beers that night.

Higgins was attempting to pass a slower-moving sedan and SUV by entering the southbound lane and was able to pass the sedan, authorities said.

The driver of the SUV, spotting the Gaudreau brothers cycling on the road, moved to the middle of the south- and northbound lanes to pass the brothers safely, according to a probable cause affidavit filed with the Salem County Superior Court Friday.

Higgins’ next move transformed the Thursday night bike ride of brothers into tragedy.

The driver attempted to pass the SUV on the right and struck Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau. They would not live to see their sister say, “I do.”

Johnny, the beloved NHL hockey star who was a husband and father of two children, died on County Route 551 with his younger brother that night, authorities said.

“The fact that they were together is horrific but ironic because they were that tight a family,” Boston College men’s hockey team head coach Greg Brown said at a Friday news conference.

Higgins, who first appeared Friday in court, is being held without bond at the Salem County Correctional Facility pending a detention motion hearing on September 5, according to Salem County court criminal division manager Crystal Harris. He potentially faces a maximum of 10 years in New Jersey state prison.

Coach: Gaudreaus ‘brought a ton of joy’ to hockey

Condolences poured in throughout the weekend for the brothers at sporting events and makeshift memorials across the country.

Seven-time NHL All-Star Johnny Gaudreau, who spent 11 seasons in the league, was drafted to Canada’s Calgary Flames in 2011 out of college and later signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets ahead of the 2022-2023 season. The enthusiastic athlete had 243 career goals and 743 points.

Even the 98-degree sweltering heat recorded in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday could not prevent heartbroken yet devoted fans from gathering as they held lit candles and placed flowers, teddy bears, hockey sticks and signed cards outside Nationwide Arena, home of the Columbus Blue Jackets, video from CNN affiliate WBNS showed.

Gaudreau played two seasons with the team. Many of the fans, including young children, wore “Johnny Hockey’s” number 13 jersey in his honor.

Matthew, who played professional hockey for five years, according to the United States Hockey League, coached ice hockey at his and Johnny’s former high school from 2022 until this summer.

The outpouring of sadness following the brothers’ deaths showcased their immense impact on the sport of hockey, both on and off the ice. The unexpected loss transcended hockey as leagues, teams, players and coaches across the sports world paid their respects.

During brief pauses on some soccer, baseball and football fields over the weekend, it was quiet.

The moment of silence held at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Friday before the Phillies took on the Atlanta Braves and similar displays of respect from fans of Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew, Ohio State’s football team and several other baseball teams were in honor of two men who “brought a ton of joy to the rink,” Brown said Friday.

The Gaudreau brothers, often equipped with big smiles, had a knack for amping up the energy in any room they entered, Brown said of the men he once coached.

“They carried that joy that they had for life and for being teammates onto the ice and you could see it by the way they played,” he said.

Meredith Gaudreau: ‘We are going to make you proud’

Johnny Gaudreau’s team and the NHL remembered him as a showstopping athlete whose “infectious spirit” and love for hockey was evident in the “great joy” with which he played the game, the Blue Jackets and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in separate statements. “He thrilled fans in a way only Johnny Hockey could,” the Blue Jackets said.

Hockey reporter Dave Maetzold, who knew the athlete through covering the Blue Jackets, described Johnny Gaudreau as a “modest superstar” who wasn’t drawn to the limelight.

The athlete was much more focused on his family, including wife Meredith Gaudreau and two young children, both born in Columbus, Maetzold said on TNT Sports Tonight.

“His dad was a frequent appearance at every game. He would be there right alongside the ice, just as he was when Johnny was a young player,” Maetzold said.

“His mom was there all the time. His sisters, his brothers, always there at the games supporting Johnny. He comes from a tight-knit family and was building a tight-knit family,” he said.

Thursday night’s fatal accident has undoubtedly left the Gaudreau family irreparably broken, and the hockey star’s children will grow up without him.

Meredith Gaudreau, who married Johnny in September 2021, broke her silence on social media on Saturday with touching Instagram posts featuring the foursome as a happy family with their dog.

Silly faces. Embraces. Big smiles. Beach walks. A birthday cake from Johnny Gaudreau’s 31st birthday, which he celebrated August 13. The photos showed glimpses of his life off the ice. His grieving widow thanked her late husband for “the best years of my life,” one post read.

“The absolute best dad in the world. So caring and loving. The best partner to go through parenthood with. John never missed a single appointment,” Gaudreau wrote. “Was the best at putting the baby to sleep and the Apple of Noa’s eye. I love how much she looks like him. We are going to make you proud. We love you so so so much daddy.”

‘It was always Matty & John’

Jerry York, Boston College’s former head coach, recalled on Friday the strong bond the Gaudreau brothers shared and credited Matthew with pushing Johnny to become an NHL star.

The late hockey players’ wives remembered them as each other’s best friends and biggest fans who were always side by side, “hip to hip.”

“John and Matty. (You) don’t hear one name without the other,” Meredith Gaudreau wrote via Instagram Saturday. 

Even though Johnny Gaudreau was the oldest sibling, his widow said he looked up to his younger brother. 

“I would sit back and watch John genuinely love his time with his brother,” she wrote, adding: “I don’t think John could live a day without (Matthew) so I’m comforted knowing you are of course together in heaven.”

Madeline Gaudreau, who shared images of the brothers’ lives together on her own Instagram, echoed her sister-in-law’s sentiments.

“It was always Matty & John,” she wrote Sunday. “I can’t even put into words the bond these two had.”

Madeline Gaudreau said she’s found “extreme comfort” in knowing the brothers are together, as they always were.

“I know they are still messing with each other up there and will continue to look over their families,” she wrote.

In an Instagram story posted Saturday, Meredith let her late husband speak for himself about how he hoped to be remembered.

In the undated news conference clip, Johnny Gaudreau said: “When my time does end here, you know, I hope people remember me as a good person off the ice, a good teammate and just a good person.”

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CNN’s Homero De la Fuente and Dalia Faheid contributed to this report.