Labrador family's epic trip to see Boston Bruins gets them red-carpet treatment

For Perry Dyson and his family, a trip to see the Boston Bruins play on home ice was not a lightly-made decision.

The Bruins really rolled out the red carpet.- Perry Dyson

The family lives in Makkovik, on the coast of Labrador, so buying tickets to the March 3 game against the Montreal Canadiens was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"It's not like we'll ever do it again, so we had hoped to make it as memorable as we could," said Dyson.

To get there, his family drove 280 kilometres by snowmobile through ice, snow and woods from Makkovik to Happy Valley-Goose Bay to catch their flights to Boston.

Before setting out, Dyson got in touch with the Bruins organization to explain the trek his family would be taking to get to the game.

Featured on Bruins Facebook

It was unusual enough to catch the team's attention, and Dyson was asked to take some GoPro footage of the trip.

Their journey to get from coastal Labrador to Boston was featured in a behind-the-scenes episode put together by the Bruins, and viewed more than 50,000 times on Facebook as of March 16.

And when the family finally rolled into Boston, the Bruins pulled all the stops.

"The Bruins really rolled out the red carpet," Dyson said.

"They really went all out and we are ever grateful. There's not enough good I can say."

A couple days before the game, the Dysons went to an open practice, where his daughters got to meet left-winger Jake DeBrusk.

"He whipped the puck, it was an errant pass that hit the boards, really close to where my daughters were sitting and my baby girl Selena, I guess she jumped, and he caught it. I was sitting behind him and I could see him smile," Dyson told CBC's Labrador Morning.

"When the drill was over he skated back to the bench, got the puck and he brought it over to Selena and apologized for frightening her. So that was a pretty sweet moment I think for Selena, and it seemed to be for him also."

The family had pretty good seats at the game, too. And after the second period, they were brought down to the arena tunnels for a special moment.

"They had arranged for my kids to fist bump the Bruins as they came out on the ice for the third period, which was pretty sweet," Dyson said.

"It was pretty special because my kids got to see all these fellas that they've been admiring for pretty much their whole lives on television, and here they were."

'It was really special'

And of course, the Bruins winning the game made the trip that much sweeter, Dyson said.

After the game, they got to have a sit-down meet-and-greet with some of the players — including DeBrusk, who no doubt is now a family favourite.

"Funny enough, one of the players that came out was again Jake DeBrusk … and he walked in the room and he looked at my girls and he said, 'You guys are my lucky charms,'" Dyson said.

"It was really special."