There are about 330,000,000 people living in the United States, so there are about 330,000,000 COVID-19 stories, many of which do not have happy endings.

It looks like Brent Beaudoin’s might, however.

The Railers’ rookie forward had a memorable pro debut on March 10, 2020, helping Worcester to a 5-4 victory over Adirondack in Glens Falls. Beaudoin was 1-1-2 and plus-2, scoring what proved to be the game-winning goal and earning No. 1 Star honors, not easy to do on the road.

In a matter of days, the ECHL season shut down. Last winter, the Railers didn’t play. It took Beaudoin some 18 months to pick up where he left off, and it has been a good pickup. In two games this season he is 1-2-3 and plus-3, making him 2-3-5 and plus-5 in three pro games.

Not bad for a player who survived four years at Brown, where the Bears compiled a record of 35-79-13.

Beaudoin was a stalwart there, though. He did not miss a game in four seasons, playing 127. Offensively, Beaudoin was 24-36-60 and was called for only 32 PIM in those 127 games. When Beaudoin decided to turn pro, Worcester was a natural landing spot. He had played college hockey just 40 miles down Route 146 and grown up in Londonderry, N.H.

Beaudoin’s numbers were not eye-catching, but GM-coach David Cunniff liked what he saw on tape and liked what he heard when they talked.

“When we watched the video,” Cunniff said, “he passed all the tests. He has great hockey sense and he’s a 200-foot hockey player who can play in any situation.

“All he wanted to do was win. When I spoke with him about potentially coming to Worcester he said, ‘Coach, I just want to win. I’ve been on losing teams the last couple of years. It weighs on you. It’s not fun and I wasn’t happy. I just want to win.’

“That’s stuff you love to hear. It’s not about — how will you use me, am I gonna be on the power play? It’s just about winning.”

Beaudoin made his Railers debut just 10 days after his sixth birthday. It was not a violation of the Child Labor Act. He was a Leap Year baby, born on Feb. 29, 1996; Beaudoin is one of just two of 615 Worcester pros born on a Feb. 29. Jake Bolton, the ex-Railer out of Holy Cross, was born in 1992.

Beaudoin lived near Manchester and saw a lot of the AHL Monarchs games, so he must have seen them play the IceCats and Sharks. He graduated from Londonderry High before heading off to skate for Brown where he majored in economics.

“I went for the education,” Beaudoin said. “I looked at most of the Ivies — talked to Dartmouth, Cornell, a little bit to UNH — but education was my main focus.”

Being an economics major, Beaudoin understands the economics of the traditional ECHL paycheck, a point driven home even more emphatically when there were none of them last season.

“The hardest part for me,” he said, “was that I have student loans so I had to work. I did Door Dash, various camps, anything I could do. I didn’t want to start a job then leave the position — I would have felt bad about that. I had some options to play hockey, but they didn’t pay well enough to support myself.”

Beaudoin also could have retired after a glorious one-game career.

“It was definitely something I thought about,” he said, “especially not playing. It crossed my mind, but when you get this far you tell yourself — if you’re this close, you’ve got to give it a shot. I don’t want to be asking myself 10 years down the road ‘Why didn’t you try?’

“I have friends who are working and they tell me, ‘Man, do it as long as you can.’ ”

Three games into his career, Beaudoin has played more games in Glens Falls than Worcester. As the season goes on, that will change, and being so close to home he should be skating in front of lots of friends and family.

His mom, anyway, got to see the debut game in Glens Falls and it was definitely worth the trip. At the time it seemed like there would be plenty of similar trips before the season ended.

“That game was everything I wished it could have been,” Beaudoin said, “but it was kind of sad that that was where the fairy tale ended.”

Or at least was paused. Any player averaging more than a point a game and a plus-2 a game will keep getting chances to add to the story.