Two of the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s strongest goalies share the stage in Bird Arena most weekends.
Although both netminders, graduate student Matt Michno and junior Fedor Dushkin, are among the best in the conference, the paths they have taken to get there are vastly different and are representative of the diversity fostered in Ohio’s locker room.
The duo has accounted for a combined three shutouts this season, and through five weeks, Michno’s 1.06 goals against average and 0.94 save percentage are only slightly better than Dushkin’s numbers, 1.97 and 0.92 respectively.
However, Dushkin has two more wins than Michno.
Each player has taken a unique route in fine-tuning the skills needed at the net at the ACHA level, and based on the performances by both through the early weeks of the season, both appear talented enough to play at the club collegiate level.
When Michno was young, his parents fostered his fascination with the Detroit Red Wings and the “cool equipment the guys wore,” by getting him involved with hockey as a 5-year-old. After learning the position’s fundamentals two years later, he continued participating in the game throughout his youth, playing for the Buckeye Travel Hockey League, which consists of teams from around the Midwest.
Michno, who graduated from OU this past summer with a degree in sports management, joined the Bobcats without experience in junior-league hockey, a hierarchy of competitive play that typically prepares players for collegiate play.
“After high school, nobody at the Division II level of club hockey was looking at me,” Michno said. “For cross-country, I had a couple offers from NCAA Division I schools, so it was mostly a competitively-based decision to choose to pursue cross-country at Ohio over juniors.”
Dushkin’s time playing in juniors, on top of the two years he has already spent on the Bobcats’ roster, help to add additional experience to a stable of goalies that also includes sophomore Brendan Madden and senior Ian Smith.
Soon after his family moved to Chicago from Rovno, Ukraine, when he was 2 years old, Dushkin’s parents got him started playing hockey at the goalie position. After high school, Dushkin played for different junior-level teams, including the Peoria Mustangs and Chicago Force. He also played for one period of a game for the Chicago Steel, a team that is part of the premier junior-league in the country, the United States Hockey League.
“Not many guys can say they’ve played in the USHL,” Dushkin said. “Luckily, I didn’t give up a goal on the nine shots they had on me. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Although Dushkin said he had some difficulties with the lack of playing time he was offered while in juniors, he was still able to learn other lessons that he could use in life and on the ice.
“Juniors wasn’t a very good experience for me, because I only played 10 games through two years,” Dushkin said. “But it taught me to keep working hard and to be patient no matter what.”
Ohio head coach Dan Morris invited Dushkin to join the Bobcats when he was still participating in juniors and acquired Michno after an open tryout at the start of this season.
Morris said both players have the skill required to compete at the ACHA level.
“Our goalies have the technical and instinctual ability that we look for at the position,” Morris said. “Dushkin handles the technical drills we run in practice a little better than Michno, who has been out of the game for a while, but (Michno is) an athletic kid, so he gets away with it.”
Dushkin, Michno and the rest of the team have seemed to bond well as the season has progressed. The Bobcats are 10-0 on the season, with a 52 to 18 ratio of goals scored to goals against.
jd202409@ohiou.edu
