Jimmy Hayes celebrates his first NHL hat trick against the Ottawa Senators two weeks ago. Photo courtesy Boston BruinsJimmy and Kevin Hayes have played against each other five times in their NHL careers to date, but a game this week at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan offered a special touch. It was Boston vs. New York, Jimmy the Bruin vs. Kevin the Ranger.

Each brother and their father had something positive to point to: Jimmy scored Boston’s only goal, Kevin’s team took the win, 2-1, and Kevin, their father, spent a weekend watching his boys live a life he says is beyond anything he could have hoped for.

Hayes senior traveled to New Jersey on Friday to watch Jimmy sweep in a goal to help the Bruins rout the Devils; then to New York on Saturday for the Rangers-Washington game, where Kevin scored although the Rangers lost to the Capitals in OT, and, finally stayed in New York for Monday night’s game.

“When we play games against each other, it’s an awesome feeling,” said the 26-year-old Jimmy. “We get into little competitions with each other.”

The brothers make a point of family time when they find themselves in the same city. “We had dinner last night, and you know it’s always cool to play your brother in this league, and tonight should be just as fun,” Kevin Hayes, 23, told BlueShirtsUnited.com before Monday’s game.

Once the puck was dropped, Jimmy was in on the action. His first shot on goal was wide and he, not the puck, ended up in the net. But his neat shot from the slot late in the second period was the first goal of the game.

The three match-ups that their father got to watch were a mixed bag for the players and their teams. Unlike his sons, who say they don’t mind a bit of competition, Kevin says, “I don’t like when they play against each other. You want them both to do well.”

Finding an early love for the ice in Charlestown and later Dorchester, the two towering forwards excelled as student athletes at Boston College. “You could tell at a young age that they were pretty good,” their father said. “They had a pretty good work ethic and they always wanted to be on the ice.”

Plenty of kids, with their parents’ backing, hope for a career in the National Hockey League. But for Kevin, who has never donned a pair of skates, his sons’ comfort on the ice and success in their careers has exceeded his hopes.

Jimmy is settled back in his hometown, halfway through his first season with the Bruins on the early end of his three-year, $2.3 million contract. Two weeks ago, he scored the first hat trick of his professional career in a particularly violent game against the Ottawa Senators.

“You always dream of it as a kid, scoring a hat trick in the NHL,” Jimmy told the Reporter. An added perk: “It’s the team I grew up cheering for, and it’s a lot of fun going back to the place where I grew up.”

Boston marks quite a change from Florida, where Jimmy spent his previous two seasons with the Panthers. “It’s a lot colder [in Boston], but it’s been great,” he said. As the team rolls into the 2016 half of its season, he has a rhythm working for him: practices, games, and making time to see his parents and sisters.

A restricted free agent with the Rangers, Kevin had a slump that led to him being announced as a healthy scratch on the same day Jimmy bagged his hat trick against Ottawa. Both had a rough start to the season and long stretches of games without goals -— 17 for Kevin and 15 for Jimmy—- but recent games have gone more their way and Kevin was back out on the ice last Saturday and scoring off the bat.

The family remains tight. Both Kevins speak almost every day, and Jimmy travels from his North End home back to Dorchester regularly when the Bruins have a stretch of home games.

“I spend all my summers here,” Jimmy said. “I plan to spend all my summers here.” He laughed, adding, “I correct people when they say I’m from Boston. I’m from Dorchester.”