Kyle McLaughlin, 19, a Cumberland High School hockey star, was killed in a car accident Monday.

CUMBERLAND — Samantha McLaughlin, 22, sat in a rocking chair holding on to an oversized pillow on the front porch of her house on 78 Mt. Pleasant View Ave. and tried to paint a picture of her brother Kyle McLaughlin.

From the time her younger brother was a child, Kyle had a Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde personality, Samantha said.

He could be a goofball, having fun and making people laugh, but when he got in the rink to play hockey he was all business, she said. “The world was shut off for him when he played hockey.”

McLaughlin, 19, a hockey standout for the Cumberland High School Clippers who helped lead his teammates to a Division II state championship in 2008, died after being ejected when his SUV rolled over on Route 295 south Monday afternoon, just north of Route 146 in Lincoln.

At their home, just blocks from Cumberland High School, Samantha and her father, David, sat on the porch of their duplex as a stream of friends and family came to the house to offer their condolences. The porch was decorated for the season with corn stalks and chrysanthemums.

McLaughlin, who was co-captain of the hockey team, had also been a captain of the lacrosse team. But hockey was his first love, and at an early age, he took a class to get certified to coach youth hockey, David McLaughlin said. “It was him and adults, but he was serious,” his father said.

Kyle’s goal in life was to play hockey. He was attending classes at the Community College of Rhode Island, but wanted to transfer to the University of Rhode Island and play hockey. His dream was to play for the Boston Bruins, Samantha said.

Kyle tried out for the South Shore Kings junior hockey team in Foxboro, Mass., which prepares players for high school and college hockey. “They had picked him as an alternate, but they found out when he was filling in that he was pretty good. By the end of the ’08-’09 season, he was fourth on the points list,” David McLaughlin said. Kyle played wing for the team.

If he couldn’t get to play hockey, he planned to be sportscaster, Samantha said, and was concentrating on communications in school. “He knew everything about sports. You could ask him any question,” she said. “The first thing he did in the morning was watch Sports Center [on ESPN]."

No matter what kind of day a person was having, Kyle could make people laugh, Samantha said. “He would bug and annoy my mother (Kathleen), and hug and kiss her until she had to smile,” Samantha said. “He was so good because my mother worked hard on him.”

Word spread fast about Kyle’s passing and, by Monday evening, his extended family — teammates from the Cumberland High School hockey team and his coach — had gathered at a friend’s house to remember a young man who had passion and love for the game and his team.

Kyle McLaughlin graduated from CHS in 2008, after a triumphant hockey season in which he won the Rev. Robert C. Newbold Most Valuable Player Award.

His grit and determination was infectious, said Mark Andreozzi, coach for the Cumberland High hockey team who serves as the fitness coordinator at Roger Williams University.

“He epitomized the game of hockey. He had so much passion and love for it. He loved his team,” Andreozzi said. “When he won the Newbold award, he was ecstatic. He said he had won it because of his teammates.”

McLaughlin was driving in the high-speed lane when he lost control of the Ford Explorer and crossed over the middle and right lanes, rolling over on the shoulder, state police Lt. Arnold Buxton said Tuesday morning.

The police don’t know what caused McLaughlin, who was traveling alone, to lose control, Buxton said. McLaughlin apparently was not using a cell phone, was not text-messaging and was not driving at a high rate of speed or recklessly, Buxton said.

It did not appear that McLaughlin was wearing a seat belt when he crashed, according to the police. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Andreozzi said the team decided that no one will wear McLaughlin’s number 11 jersey this season, which starts later this month. The team plans to wear arm bands with McLaughlin’s number, Andreozzi said.

McLaughlin kept in touch with Andreozzi after graduation and would stop by to watch the hockey games. He and other teammates attended Andreozzi’s bachelor’s party before he got married in September. McLaughlin had talked about helping Andreozzi coach this season.

“You feel like you lost a member of the family and we did,” Andreozzi said. “He was the heart and soul of this team in many ways. We tried to create a family atmosphere on this team. Words just can’t explain what this means to the team, to his friends, to everybody.”

With reports by Kate Bramson

tpina@projo.com