By Pat Welter, WRAL Sports multimedia journalist

RALEIGH N,C — The road to the Stanley Cup is long. But for some, it helps to bring a GPS.

“Initially what happened was our flights were cancelled from Winnipeg to Boston,” said Lucas Humble. “We were looking at options to get to Boston and ultimately the easiest and cheapest way to get there was to drive.”

Humble is one of Seth Jarvis’ hometown friends who drove from Winnipeg, Canada to Boston, Massachusetts to see him play in the 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament back in February. Jarvis said Humble along with a group of his friends intended to fly in for the game, but after several delayed flights, they turned to their last resort — driving.

“They went 30 hours straight to Boston,” Jarvis said. “Got there the night before the game, so I got to see them a little bit.”

Some of the photos from their drive went viral. 

“It was a trek, but we got there,” said Bryan Hanna, one of Jarvis’ friends.

For the Carolina Hurricanes playoff series versus the New Jersey Devils, the NHL helped them do it again.

“Word got out and they wanted to get us to a game,” Hanna continued. “We found anyway we could to get here.”

This time, they flew into Washington, D.C., rented a van and drove the rest of the way to Raleigh to see Jarvis and the Canes play game five versus the Devils.

Two overtimes later, the Canes erased a 3-0 deficit to beat the Devils 5-4 and win the series. In the locker room after the game, they got to celebrate with their lifelong friend.

“They got to celebrate with us and meet some of the players and they had a blast,” Jarvis said.

Jarvis has become a fan favorite for his goal scoring, but also his personality. According to his best friends, he is still the guy they knew growing up.

“You meet a lot of people that change over that span, but with him he’s been the same guy,” said Jarvis’ friend, Sloan Tremblay. “It’s kind of cool.”

Source: wralsportsfan.com