‘I can’t believe it’: MJHL goal call goes viral

“Look at that! Look at this! Look at that!”

Those words have been going viral in the hockey world after they were uttered by Virden Oil Capitals play-by-play man Doug Roach during a Manitoba Junior Hockey League game last week.

Oil Capitals forward Roux Bazin split the Steinbach Pistons’ defence and scored a top-shelf goal to give the Capitals a 2-1 overtime win, with Roach unable to contain his excitement over the play in a moment that has since garnered thousands of views.

Announcers pants are absolutely RUINED😂

🎥: mjhlhockey/IG pic.twitter.com/nWn2MF2zMJ

— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) December 11, 2023

“It’s been longer than 15 minutes (of fame), I’ll tell you that,” Roach told The Green Zone on Wednesday. “I can’t believe it, really.

“It started Monday when my son sent me a clip from Spittin’ Chiclets saying that my call was on the Instagram page, so I looked and ever since then, it has been ballooning and going crazy.”

Roach said he hasn’t thought too much about what to do with the newfound fame.

“It’s kind of funny to me because it just kind of came out of my mouth,” he said. “I was talking with my daughter and she said, ‘I’m getting lots of texts from everyone,’ and it’s funny. Her and (her sister) looked at each other and said, ‘He talks like that at home all the time, so it’s not new.’ ”

Roach said he can’t get away from his call no matter where he goes right now.

“I was at the rink (Tuesday) night reffing a high school game and the players on the home bench and a few on the other bench who were local mentioned the comment every now and then,” Roach said. “There was a goal scored and the guy looked at me and said, ‘Is that a roof daddy?’ and I go, ‘No, it went along the ice, so no.’

“It’s funny because I said, ‘Oh no, my next broadcast is Friday,’ and my brother said, ‘Well, just be yourself – maybe you can talk a little about this and a little about that.’ ”

Roach, who used to play hockey in Estevan, said he first got interested in play-by-play when he was a goalie. While the puck wasn’t in his end, in order to keep his mind from wandering, he would do play-by-play in his head during his game.

“I’ve been doing it for a while just to myself,” Roach said.

A few years ago, out on the ball diamond before his daughter’s practice, he approached the Oil Capitals’ coach about doing the job for them.

Last year, an opening for the spot came up and the MJHL team offered him the role– and he has done it ever since.

Roach said the team has also approached him about making T-shirts to commemorate the call.

“When I’m going to talk about this clip, it only happened because of the exciting brand of hockey that Virden is playing right now. If they weren’t pulling the moves and playing exciting hockey, I wouldn’t be getting excited up in the broadcast booth so this wouldn’t have happened. It’s because of them,” Roach said.

“They approached me and I said, ‘Yeah, you go right ahead and have fun with it too.’ ”