This week on RinkRap, a new standard of madness at the Bowling Green Madhouse; an Olympic hero pays homage to the Maverick who shattered his prized shutout record; and the Olympic coach who won’t sleep for six months

The Aptly Named Madhouse

Thirty-nine minutes of playing time in front of the Bowling Green student section proved to be too much for Ohio State freshman goalie Jakub Dobes.

In addition to the 44 shots thrown away, he had been insulted, jeered and distracted for nearly three hours. In the game’s final minute, a Pier Six-style brawl between the two clubs resulted in whopping 53 penalties being assessed.

It caused one very long stoppage in play to sort it all out, while the Madhouse fans continued to excoriate Dobes from only six feet away, a single plane of plexi between him and the unruly masses.

Finally, the puck was dropped, and the hometown Falcons resumed their desperate bid for the tying goal. But it turned out that 15 minutes wasn’t enough time for the off-ice officials to complete their lengthy entries into the scoresheet.

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Dobes, the most alert man in the building, noticed that the clock hadn’t resumed. Basically, his enemy was getting a free pass to tee up as many attempts as they could without a single tick coming off the game clock. Dobes screamed his bloody head off, to no avail. Seeing red, he finally took matters into his own hands, heaving the goal frame he was defending off its moorings, forcing the on-ice officials to pause the game.

The referees, seeing the error of their ways, went to the video screen, found the missing 10 seconds, and then adjusted the clock from :29 to :19 remaining in the game. Then they conferred, and instead of thanking Dobes, they decided to throw the book at him. Not only was the OSU freshman penalized for delay of game, but because it was in the final minute of play, they awarded BGSU’s Taylor Schneider a penalty shot.

Dobes had to stash his outrage, collect himself, and calmly deny the tying goal on a breakaway to BGSU’s top sniper. Check, check and check from the Czech native. After the longest final minute of regulation in memory, Dobes and his mates had their own Madhouse victory celebration, directly against the glassed off student section. The players were doing the pounding this time. Madhouse, indeed.

Miller pays Homage to McKay

When Dryden McKay broke the NCAA shutout record of Michigan State legend Ryan Miller in October, he paid tribute to Miller, calling him his “favorite goalie growing up,” and that Miller’s performance in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, “gave me the dream to keep playing goalie.”

Miller was made aware of McKay’s hero worship and reached out to the Minnesota State All-American. He shared some of those sentiments with RinkRap.

“It feels good to know that my time on the ice had real meaning to someone by helping them find their passion in life,” Miller said. “I know I felt the same way about watching the goalies who came before me.”

Regarding the record-breaking McKay, “I am rooting for him. It takes a tremendous amount of focus and determination to play goalie at the level he is.”  

Sleepless in St. Paul 

St. Thomas women’s coach Joel Johnson has been moonlighting this year, and no, he is not selling insurance to pay off his mortgage, he’s coaching the U.S. Olympic women’s team as well.

A typical day for Johnson—if there has been such a thing this year—is to practice with his Tommies in St. Paul in the morning and then hustle out to Blaine for afternoon workouts with the Olympians. What kind of sleep patterns has the guy who swears he hasn’t been serving two masters had?

“When you get old you don’t sleep a whole lot,” Johnson told RinkRap. “You get up, stub your toe on the way to the bathroom [laughs]. I don’t worry about sleep right now. I’ll sleep in March.”

Johnson listed off all the assistant coaches at both USA Hockey and St. Thomas for making it possible for him to be in two places at once this season.

“There’s some busy days, but when you surround yourself with great people, you can sometimes just stay out of the way,” he said.

Johnson is in St. Paul this week but not on the STU campus. He and the rest of Team USA are downtown at the Xcel Center, prepping for a nationally televised exhibition game against Canada (Note: After publication of this article, the game was canceled due to COVID concerns). The national press corps asked him what he wanted most for Christmas.

Without missing a beat, Johnson brought down the house by saying “a nap!”