Dietz wrote the newest chapter in the NHL’s EBUG novel on Saturday night
It took a run down Terry Fox Drive and a ride in a generous couple’s SUV, but Gee-Gees goalie Zach Dietz was not going to be stopped from getting to the Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday night as the Ottawa Senators welcomed the Pittsburgh Penguins to town.
Dietz wasn’t going as a fan like any other second-year University of Ottawa student might have been, though. The 22-year-old Freelton native had been called upon to serve as the Senator’s backup goaltender after the planned starter, Anton Forsberg, was injured.
It wasn’t the first time that Dietz had served as the emergency backup goaltender (EBUG), but it was the first time that he was next in line to go into the game for the Senators if the new starter, Linus Ullmark, got injured.
What the hell is an EBUG?
Ok, time to backpedal for a second. To go any further, you should know what an EBUG is first. Emergency backups are commonplace across professional hockey leagues. A team uses a list of EBUGs throughout a season to attend each game and serve as the third-string goalie for both teams.
For the Senators, that list is made up of the three Gee-Gees goalies — Franky Lapenna, Jean-Philipe Tourigny, and Dietz. The three receive tickets to Senators games on a rotating basis in return for bringing their equipment and dressing if any of the four goaltenders in the game get hurt.
EBUGs have become a beloved quirk of the National Hockey League in the past few years. While the goalies are obviously talented and most played at least high-level junior hockey, there is no other professional sport where someone can be plucked out of the stands and thrust into the game.
First, there was Scott Foster, a 36-year-old accountant. Foster dressed for a Chicago Blackhawks game in 2018 against the Winnipeg Jets after, ironically, the same Anton Forsberg was unable to play, and then went into action when backup Colin Delia was injured during the game to close out a win over the Jets.
Next, there was 42-year-old David Ayres, who worked at the arena of the Toronto Maple Leafs minor-league affiliate (and whose duties included driving the Zamboni at times) who led the Carolina Hurricanes over the Leafs after both their goalies were injured in a February 2020 game.
A run to the rink
Flash forward to Saturday, when the Senators were set to play the Penguins at 7 p.m. Dietz’s phone started blowing up just before 6 p.m., when the other Gee-Gees goalies and Senators goalie coach Justin Peters began trying to get a hold of him when it became clear that Forsberg was not dressing for the game. Dietz and his girlfriend Charley Healey started hustling to the rink.
And then they got off Highway 417 and hit the notorious stop-and-go stretch between the highway and the Canadian Tire Centre. It was there that Dietz realized he was going to be late to the game.
After a quick discussion, Healey, who plays forward for the women’s hockey team, jumped over to the driver’s seat as Dietz grabbed his pads, bag, and sticks and began running to the rink. He didn’t get too far before a couple in an SUV took notice and offered him a ride the rest of the way, just as the traffic was subsiding.
Dietz said the moment reminded him of times during his minor hockey career he was late to games. “I was just trying to get to the rink as soon as I could,” he told the Fulcrum, noting that he was also thinking about Minnesota Wild forward Travis Boyd’s similar run to a game a few weeks earlier.
Both moments, of course, blew up on social media. The video of Dietz running down Terry Fox Drive took the moment from an intriguing twist unfolding on Hockey Night in Canada to a moment that will live on for years to come.
A date night gone… right?
Dietz and Healey began dating at the start of the year. Dietz laughed as he told the story of how they met, as he recalled meeting her at a bar near the end of last year and messaging her afterwards, only to be ignored — or so he thought.
The message never actually sent, and after meeting again, at another bar a few weeks later, the two started talking for real, and started dating before the start of both of their seasons in the fall. Saturday was supposed to serve as a fun date night for the two, just after they had both finished their final exam and just before they went home for the holidays, with Healey set to fly back to Calgary just a couple days later.
Healey, now left alone to navigate parking the car in the players lot (which she accomplished by calling Dietz’s goalie partners) eventually made her way to behind the bench, and later to the tunnel leading to the dressing rooms, with the help of Jim Montgomery, the Senator’s head of security. Donned in a black Sidney Crosby jersey, it was there she got the chance to meet some high-level Senators executives.
Eventually, Healey made her way to the media room in the bowels of the arena where Dietz was watching the game, and they were able to watch the second and third periods together. “I met a bunch of cool people,” said Healey. “It was a really fun experience for me as well!”
Dietz didn’t end up making his way onto the Senators bench — as he was still technically the emergency backup for both teams — but he did get his name stitched onto the back of a jersey, and pictures in it with Healey, after he signed an amateur tryout contract.
“You only really meet a few special people in your life when you’re at university,” said Dietz. “She was one of the people I would have wanted around for this moment, I was lucky to share this situation with her.”
A backup goalie is never out of work for long
Although Dietz has appeared in just six games, starting three, since he joined the Gee-Gees last season, that is about to change. Dietz’s games played may not jump off the page at you, but his stats tell a different story.
This season, he sits at 2-0, having won both of his starts, and allowing just one goal in each. If you add the game he appeared in relief of Lapenna against UQTR, that still only pushes his goals-against average to 1.72 and his save percentage to .930 — a figure identical to last year’s, in the same number of games.
With Lapenna set to travel to Torino, Italy, alongside an all-star team of U SPORTS players competing under the Team Canada banner at the 2024 FISU Winter World University Games, the net is Dietz’s to lose until the starter returns at the end of January.
Dietz credits Kyle Bergh, a mental performance coach with the Gee-Gees, for keeping him mentally sharp for when he does play. Dietz said that implementing his preparation from his days as a starter with the OJHL’s Burlington Cougars into every game, no matter if he’s starting or not, and sometimes even in practice as well is key.
“I’ve honestly just remained pretty confident in myself, because it’s not a bad thing that I’m backing up one of the best goalies in the OUA,” added Dietz, noting that he has learned a lot from both Lapenna and Tourigny, a third-year who was the Gee-Gees’ starter before Lapenna arrived last year.
Both Lapenna and Dietz are excited for January, and excited for each other. “For him, being able to play at the FISU games, it’s probably the greatest or best opportunity you can get as an OUA or U SPORTS athlete,” said Dietz. “No one deserves it more than him to be along for that ride.”
National championship in the nation’s capital
University and college programs pull out all the tricks when it comes time to recruit potential athletes. The Gee-Gees football program, for example, books a visit for the recruiting class during the Panda Game, which many players credit as a reason they chose Ottawa.
For the hockey team, there is no spectacle like the fight for the beloved Panda, but they have held an equally inviting tool to wow recruits for the last few seasons: the upcoming national championship, which will be hosted by the Gee-Gees at TD Place in March.
“When I committed here, obviously one of the perks was knowing that we were hosting a national championship,” Dietz said. “Being able to be a part of that in a small way, or however I’m apart of it, is something that I’ve been looking forward to, and our team’s been looking forward to.”
The Gee-Gees enter the Christmas break 10-6-1, good for fourth place in the talent-rich OUA East, with a pair of November losses to the crosstown Carleton Ravens sliding them just outside of the country’s top ten.
“Obviously we have a big bulk of the season coming up, so we have to focus on those games, but it’s in the back of everyone’s mind that we’re going to be at nationals no matter what, but obviously the focus is getting there and earning a spot there, getting a good seed, finishing really well in the OUA, and then focusing on nationals when it comes.”
The Gee-Gees will resume their season at RMC on Jan. 7 before welcoming Carleton (Jan. 9), Nipissing (Jan. 17), and Windsor (Jan. 18) to Minto, where you can bet to see Dietz — actually in net, this time.
