"Dwayne Roloson, Tampa Bay Lightning goalkeeper, has been a star most of these Stanley Cup playoffs.

Then again, he has help.

There's a small green shamrock painted on the back plate of Roloson's goalie mask — a shamrock with the initials KR inside it. And there are the letters TDLO for "The Dream Lives On."

It's for a friend, a former camper at Roloson's summer goalie school, a boy not unlike Roloson's young sons, Brett and Ross. The shamrock is for a remarkable boy who'll always be 12, with a mop of hair and smile that could melt the ice.

It's for KR.

Kelly Ryan.

"I'm honored to have him with me," Roloson said.

"The dream lives on, that's true," said Phil Ryan, Kelly's father. "Every day I watch Roli in the playoffs, even though Roli's name is on the sweater, … Kelly is there. He's in the Eastern Conference Finals."

He came into this world on Chicago's Southwest Side on Oct. 9, 1997, a month premature.

Kelly Thomas Ryan was in a hurry.

Phil Ryan is a cement finisher. His wife, Chris, is an office manager. They have two daughters, McKenna and Hannah. Kelly was in the middle.

Phil was a goalkeeper. He put Kelly on skates at 6, and a year later Kelly went between the pipes. He wasn't the biggest kid, but he worked hard and rose through the youth hockey ranks. Like we said, he was in a hurry.

"The NHL, that was Kelly's goal since he was 10," Phil said.

Along came Roli.

Phil still has no idea why his son chose Dwayne Roloson as his hockey hero. It's not as though Roloson played for Chicago's NHL team, the Blackhawks. Kelly followed Roloson as he went from the Minnesota Wild to the Edmonton Oilers to the New York Islanders."