DU’s Matt Donovan: “Director’s cut” of feature on Oklahoma-born defenseman and World Junior gold medalist

Published Feb. 9, 2010 at 4:07 a.m.

The following for-posterity version of the Matt Donovan feature is more comprehensive than the piece I turned in to run in the newspaper and online sports sections. (Here.) We gave nice space and play to the story, so no quibbles there. But this version for the limitless world of blogdom, roughly twice as long and certainly targeted for a core readership, includes more details about the World Junior Championships and Donovan's unusual — at least in the geographic sense — hockey and family background. Denver Post Photos: Hyoung Chang

Matt Donovan hears it every day, usually at a rink.

You’re from WHERE?

Yes, the University of Denver freshman defenseman is from Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain; where football is king; and where — at least according to perception — hockey is to his native state, what bobsledding is to Jamaica.

“I get it from everyone,” Donovan, 19, said recently at Magness Arena. “Then it’s something like, ‘We didn’t know Oklahoma had hockey.’ Or, ‘We didn’t know Oklahoma had ice.’”

That makes his role in what happened on Jan. 4 even more unlikely. After the U.S. knocked off Canada 6-5 in overtime in the title game of the World Junior (Under-20) Championships in Saskatoon, Donovan stood with his gold medal around his neck and heard the U.S. anthem.

Donovan is a fascinating study, illustrating the expansion of hockey participation into unlikely areas of the country; the drastic change in college hockey recruiting approaches in the past two decades, with coaches scouting and seeking commitments from players as young as 14; and the choices available for teenaged American players as they attempt to land college scholarships or reach the NHL — or both.

A 2008 draft choice of the NHL’s New York Islanders who was born and raised in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, Donovan had three goals and two assists in seven WJC tournament games.

“With 15,000 people screaming against us, it was pretty nuts,” Donovan said. “I don’t think you can describe the feeling of winning that.”

Donovan made the U.S. team for the World Juniors after a tryout camp, and he was one of seven players from Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams who took breaks from their college seasons to play for their country.

“It was time I've ever been away from my family for Christmas, but then again, I knew the opportunity I had was unbelievable,” Donovan said.

In the preliminary round of the tournament, the Americans had a 4-2 lead in the third period against Canada before the host team stormed back to force overtime, and won in a shootout. Then in the championship game, the U.S. led 5-3 in the third, but Canada's Jordan Eberle scored twice in the final three minutes of regulation to force overtime again. “When they tied it, it was like, ‘Oh, no, not again,'” Donovan said. “We didn't want to let it happen again. But then we kind of got that burst again in overtime.”

The Americans' John Carlson scored at 4:21 of overtime to give the U.S. — and Donovan — the gold...

It was such an affront to some Canadians, for whom the sport is a measure of the national character, they probably considered switching their primary sporting allegiances to curling or lacrosse. Some Canadians also were upset with the Avalanche for not allowing rookie centers Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly, both young enough for the WJC, to possibly play for Canada.

Carlson, who scored the game-winner, has played six games for the Washington Capitals this season, but now is in the American Hockey League with the Hershey Bears.

It was little consolation to Canadians that two of the American-born stars are the sons of Canadian-born former NHL players — Ryan Bourque, son of one-time Avalanche defenseman and Hall of Famer Ray Bourque; and John Ramage, son of ex-Colorado Rockies defenseman Rob Ramage. Bourque is playing for Patrick Roy with major junior's Quebec Remparts, while Ramage is a University of Wisconsin freshman.

At the post-tournament team family function, Donovan met Ray Bourque. “It was very nerve-wracking, knowing that he played so many years in the NHL and won a Stanley Cup,” Donovan said. “I've always been a big fan of his. I introduced myself and he said I played well and that I looked good out there.”

Then Donovan returned to the college game.

“I was kind of excited to get back into the groove of things, to be back with my team,” Donovan said.

The Pioneers are on a roll after sweeping North Dakota on the road two weeks ago, then beating Mercyhurst and Air Force in non-league games over the weekend. While playing a prominent role on the DU blue line, Donovan has four goals and 12 assists in 23 games.

Donovan stands a chance of becoming the first Oklahoma-born and raised NHL player. Former Avalanche center Tyler Arnason, now playing in Russia, was born in Oklahoma City when his father was playing minor-league hockey, but was raised in Canada.

Matt’s father, Larry Donovan, is a Boston native who came to East Central University in Ada, Okla., on a semester exchange program from his first school, Westfield State College in Westfield, Mass. “It was different in Ada,” Larry said from Oklahoma City. “It took me a while to get used to it, but once I did, I liked it. I ended up staying.”

After college, Larry worked for the state of Oklahoma insurance department in Oklahoma City before for 10 years getting into rink management full-time. “I did that part-time at first because a friend of mine owned the rink,” Larry said. “We were there so much, anyway, with my daughter (Katelyn, two years older than Matt) figure skating and Matthew playing hockey, and I played adult hockey. At some point, I was spending so much of my life at the rink, the guy who owned it said, ‘Hey, why don't you just work here?' I said, ‘Know what? Not a bad idea.'”

By then, Donovan's son was displaying considerable talent.

“Matthew was about 3 when he started skating by himself,” Larry said. “He wanted to be there all the time.”

Ice time was at a premium in the Oklahoma City area, where minor-league hockey is deep-rooted, but participation at the youth level isn’t. “There were two rinks I grew up playing at,” Matt said. “One is Arctic Edge, and they just put in a second ice sheet now. My dad’s at Blazers Ice Center.”

Matt also played baseball, football, and golf. “He was a really good athlete, but those other things were really something for him to do in the offseason,” Larry Donovan said.

Larry coached the University of Oklahoma club team, but it wasn’t long before it was clear that Matt could dream of playing at a level higher than that. The competition as he was climbing the youth hockey ladder, Matt said, “was not great, but good enough.” He listed a handful of his contemporaries that have gone on to significant junior hockey, but it also was apparent that he would have to leave home to find a greater challenge.

Matt moved to Dallas — one of the nation’s youth hockey hotbeds — to attend Coppell High School and play Midget AAA for the Dallas Stars.

“I had just turned 16, I had gotten my license, and my mom (Kathryn) definitely didn’t want me to leave,” Matt said. “But it was a no-brainer for me. I wanted to play college hockey and that was the way to go. You couldn't stay in Oklahoma your whole life and play hockey.”

His father wasn’t wild about it, either. “I’m not going to lie to you,” Larry Donovan said. “I didn’t want him to leave, because once they leave, they leave, you know? It’s hard to get them back.”

Matt lived with “billet” parents Gwen and Steve Milligan, friends of his coach, next door to the high school. “I walked to the high school, walked back, went to practice, went home, ate dinner, did homework and went to sleep,” Donovan said.

Then the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the United States Hockey League drafted him. The USHL is as close to major junior as players can get without contaminating their NCAA scholarship eligibility. DU also already was recruiting Donovan on a “futures” basis, with assistant coach Steve Miller as the point man. Donovan took a recruiting trip to DU in the spring of 2007 and then — before he ever played a game in the USHL — agreed he would join the Pioneers program two years later. He officially signed a letter of intent last year...

DU coach George Gwozdecky admitted he raised his eyebrows a bit when he heard that the prospect was from Oklahoma. “But we knew that with his dad’s involvement in hockey, there were some bloodlines there,” Gwozdecky said. “He was impacted by his dad’s love for the game.”

Donovan said of committing (and it was a commitment, because both sides stuck to it) to DU two years in advance: “It was kind of nice having that pressure lifted off my shoulders. Most guys in the USHL don’t know where they’re going for college yet and they feel they’re fighting for a scholarship.”

At Cedar Rapids, he lived with “billet” parents, Mary and Lon Tresnak, and his parents felt better because — in the small world department — Mary was a lawyer who had lived in Edmond and was such a friend of the family when Matt was young, she had baby-sat him and Katelyn for the Donovans. “We got lucky on that,” Larry said. “It's funny how it worked out.”

DU watched him for his final two years of high school and the USHL — he was graduated from Kennedy High in Cedar Rapids — and his development validated the Pioneers’ decision to commit a scholarship to him so early. And the Islanders also took him in the fourth round of the NHL draft after his first season at Cedar Rapids.

As a freshman in 2009-10, Matt stepped right into a regular shift with the Pioneers.

“There’s lots of growing up left to do,” he said. “There are lots of things I have to work on to get to the next level. I know what I can do offensively, but defensively, I have to get stronger.”

Said Gwozdecky: “He’s getting better and better. He’s getting more confident, like all our freshmen. It’s a different role he has to play — a challenging role on defense, especially in our league where you’re playing against guys are so much bigger and stronger than you’ve seen. He’s coming along real well.”

Donovan is living in a dormitory suite with freshman teammates Paul Phillips, also a Donovan teammate at Cedar Rapids, and Chris Knowlton; and sophomore Nate Dewhurst.

Because of lowered threshold ages for free agency, NHL teams have been less patient about waiting for draft choices attending colleges in recent years, and the Islanders have been among the least patient of all. The most notorious incident was when sophomore Kyle Okposo left the University of Minnesota in the middle of the 2007-08 season to sign with the Islanders and first went to the American Hockey League's Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Islanders GM Garth Snow defended the signing, saying the Minnesota program wasn't aiding Okposo's development, and Okposo, now 21, has 12 goals for the Islanders this season.

That said, it seems unlikely that the Islanders would make a run at Donovan until after his junior season, but nothing can be ruled out.

“Right now, I’m expecting to be here four years, until someone tells me otherwise,” Donovan said.

_________________________________________

Visit Terry Frei's web site, www.terryfrei.com, for information about his books and screenplays:
– Playing Piano in a Brothel, scheduled for a September 2010 release.
– The Witch's Season, the novel now available.
– Third Down and a War to Go (foreword by Pulitzer-Prize winner David Maraniss);
– ‘77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age (foreword by Ron Zappolo), newly released in the trade paperback edition;
– Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming.
– plus the project-in-progress, Patrick Ireland's memoirs, Columbine's Boy in the Window.

email: tfrei@denverpost.com

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