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These parents are such big Avs fans, they named their kids after hockey players

Dad Charlie Hyland fell in love with hockey in 1996, when the Avs won the Stanley Cup during the team's first season in Denver.

ARVADA, Colo. — Win or lose, there will always be superfans of the Colorado Avalanche

Then there are fans who take it a step further. A family in Arvada loves hockey so much that they named their kids after famous players.

The Hyland family has season tickets. They watched Games 1 and 2 from Ball Arena, but on Monday, the parents cheered on the team from home with their kids who are destined to like the sport too. 

Charlie Hyland fell in love with hockey in 1996, when the Avs won the Stanley Cup during the team's first season in Denver.  

“I was fortunate to be working for the Denver Nuggets as a ball boy, and through that connection when the Avs first came to town for the first year I was able to score tickets to the playoffs in the Stanley Cup,” Charlie said.

He’s been a fan ever since, and now he’s watching the Avs go for the Cup again.

His kids have no choice but to like hockey too.

“We are a huge MacKinnon family, so we said Jack MacKinnon,” he said. “It had a ring. We loved it.”

One-year-old Jack’s middle name honors Avs player Nathan MacKinnon.

“There is definitely some loyalty to the name MacKinnon,” Allison Hyland said. 

Less than two years after Jack was born, Harry Hyland joined the family. He’s named after the Harry Hyland who scored the first hat trick in NHL history. 

A hat trick is when a player scores three goals in one game.

“He is the third child, so there’s our little hat trick kid,” Charlie said.

The little ones are too young to remember this year’s Stanley Cup, but their oldest kid, Patrick, is taking it all in. MacKinnon is his favorite player.  

“The first time I knew Jack was going to have the middle name, if it was a boy, I was a little jealous,” he said.  

This family loves hockey so much that they’re committed to being fans for a lifetime.  

“We were joking around with the family saying there’s going to be a fourth kid and we are going to call him Stanley. There’s not, there’s not!” Charlie said. 

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