Savio skater scored for her

When his brother walked into his class one afternoon last week, Bill Langan knew instantly in his heart, in his soul, in the stinging mist that erupted in his eyes, what it was all about.

His mother, who had fought off cancer for more than a year, was dead. The sad truth was that it had only been a matter of time.

There's no script to follow for a high school junior whose mother leaves this Earth after a valiant fight with a disease that remains, for the time being, undefeated.

Does he mourn with family? Does he finish the school day? Does he suit up with the rest of his Savio Prep hockey team for the Eastern Massachusetts championship scheduled for that night?

''My brother asked if I wanted to come home," Langan recalled this week. ''I said, 'Mom told me to keep everything routine.' "

He stayed behind and after school, boarded the bus for the ride to the game.

His teammates hugged him and urged him to let them know whatever he needed. So he did.

Before the game, he issued a short but poignant demand: ''I said my mother died that afternoon. She wanted me to be here. Win it for her, and she'll help us through."

Now before anyone gets the wrong idea that this is another saccharine story about another athlete who feels the dire need to parade a personal, read marketable, cause, it's not.

Remember all those US Olympians who weren't just skiing or skating for love of sport, but because, in one case, a grandmother had died something like 13 years before? Remember all those sappy television tributes about their supposedly heartbreaking tales?

Bill Langan isn't that way. For starters, he's not a star. Actually, he barely gets any ice time at all.

Last season, when East Boston's Savio Prep team needed someone to videotape its games, he did. When it needed someone to keep stats, he did. If his coaches ask him to drive the Zamboni between periods, he would probably do that as well.

''He is such a great kid. He's not very talented, but he's one of those kids who just wants to be part of the team," said Savio coach Joe Ciccarello. ''He's one of those kids you just love to have around."

Savio won that night, 5-4, sending them into the state championship game against Longmeadow, which was scheduled for the TD Banknorth Garden at Sunday noon, two hours before Karen Langan's wake.

''The game starts, and he's right there," Ciccarello said.

As Langan put it: ''The day was pretty emotional. I had the wake and being at the Garden. She would have been there. She never missed a game. She always used to tell me she was there when Bobby Orr scored. It was like she was up in the rafters watching."

Savio was blown out by the second period, which, Ciccarello would say later, may not have been a bad thing. It meant he could put Bill Langan into the game.

''When the game got out of hand, he asked: 'Can I play forward? I want to go score a goal for my mother'. . ." Ciccarello said. ''He's never played forward before. He's never scored a goal before."

Langan got off two good shots, both of them blocked. Then, with less than two minutes in the game, he got off a third shot.

''I could see it in slow motion," Langan recalled. ''It bounced off the goalie and went in. Everyone went nuts. The ref gave the puck to my coach. All the Longmeadow fans were wondering why they're going nuts if they're getting killed."

They lost 11-4 that day, Savio did, but that's just part of life. The players quickly showered and donned their sweats. The team bus took them straight to the Carr Funeral Home in Charlestown. The kids filed through the receiving line and paid their respects.

Bill Langan? He quietly knelt before his mother's casket and placed the goal-scoring puck inside.

He knew, everyone knew, how proud she was, how proud she would have been.

Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com.