Ronald L. Docken is a retired American professional ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 goaltender.

Career

Docken spent three years with the University of Minnesota from 1967-70. After not playing during the 1970-71 season, Docken signed with the Johnstown Jets

Johnstown Jets

The Johnstown Jets were a professional ice hockey team from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The Jets were founded in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League for the 1950–51 season, playing at the newly constructed Cambria County War Memorial Arena...

 of the EHL

Eastern Hockey League

-Eastern Amateur Hockey League :The league was founded in 1933 as the Eastern Amateur Hockey League . The league was founded by Thomas Lockhart, who served as its commissioner from 1933 to 1972...

. Docken backed up second-year Jets goalie Bob Vroman and appeared in nine games in his rookie season. Once Vroman departed the Jets for the Springfield Kings of the AHL

American Hockey League

The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...

, Docken took over starting duties for the Jets. He would lead the Jets to the EHL semi-finals against the Roanoke Valley Rebels

Roanoke Valley Rebels

The Roanoke Valley Rebels were a minor league hockey franchise in the ECHL from 1990-92. The Rebels played their games at the LancerLot in Vinton, Virginia...

 during the 1972-73 EHL playoffs, but the Jets would lose the series four games to one

Docken would split time with Jets goalie Louis Levasseur

Louis Levasseur

For the ice hockey player, see Jean-Louis Levasseur.Louis Levasseur was a scrivener and became lieutenant general of the admiralty court of Île Royale....

 over the next two seasons, including during the 1974-75 season where the Jets won the Lockhart Cup. He would remain with the Jets for one more season before signing with the Long Beach Sharks/Rockets of the Pacific Hockey League

Pacific Hockey League

The Pacific Hockey League was a low-level minor professional hockey league that existed for two seasons in 1977-78, and 1978-79. Its member teams from California, Arizona and Washington states, replaced the void left by defunct World Hockey Association franchises, with some teams sharing the names...

.

Docken returned to Johnstown for his final season and took the starting duties of the Johnstown Wings of the North Eastern Hockey League.

Docken retired after the 1978-79 season.

Personal

Docken was one of several Johnstown Jets players to be chosen to play for the Charlestown Chiefs in the 1977 film Slap Shot

Slap Shot (film)

Slap Shot is a 1977 film comedy starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean directed by George Roy Hill. It depicts a minor league hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a declining factory town.- Plot :...

. He portrayed the backup goalie "Lebrun" and filled in for Yvon Barrette

Yvon Barrette

Yvon Barrette is a Canadian actor who grew up in Alma, Quebec. He trained at the National Theater School of Canada but left in 1969 before graduation due to disagreement over the notion of creation the School had toward Quebec theater, along with fellow classmates Pierre Curzi, Paule Baillargeon...

 during several scenes where Barrette was injured

Since his retirement from hockey, Docken has been involved in water purification sales in the Minneapolis area.

External links