David Rittich gives 'inspiring' autistic brother surprise of a lifetime

David Rittich has been a revelation between the pipes for Calgary this season, and earlier this week he put his new-found celebrity and pull within the Flames organization to stage a special moment for someone the netminder calls an inspiration.

Rittich’s 23-year-old brother Tomas has autism and deals with other developmental issues. And while family is of absolute importance to Tomas, there’s competition for David when it comes to his favourite member of the Flames organization.

See, Tomas is a huge fan of Harvey the Hound. When the Rittich family watches Flames games, it’s the long-time mascot Tomas is fixated on.

So after travelling 8,000 km to visit his brother this week, Tomas also got a chance to meet Harvey in an encounter orchestrated by his brother.

And it was nothing short of heartwarming.

Rittich told Ryan Dittrick of the Flames’ website that he knew Tomas would be happy, but didn’t know how he would react.

He was happy to see his brother in tears — and nearly joined him there.

“I was close,” said Rittich.

That makes all of us, Dave.

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