The Ozaukee Ice Center will be making some updates to their penalty box doors, in light of an incident in the Milwaukee Express - Entech game last week.

After being called for a questionable hooking penalty (it's not a penalty to lift someone's stick, right?), MKE Express defenseman Eric Kent pleaded his case with referee Jim Ferrell on the way to the penalty box.

After entering the box, Kent closed the door, and he put some heft into it, because you need a little heft to close the penalty box door and make sure it latches appropriately.  It made a pretty loud sound when the door was shut.

Referee Ferrell believed that the sound Kent made closing the door was born of frustration, and elected to give Kent an extra two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.

"I know the rules about complaining about the officiating," MKE Express executive vice president of media relations Seth Levine said after the game on Sunday night.  "It can only get you into trouble.  So instead, let's complain about the penalty box doors.  I don't know if they just need a visit from an oil can periodically, or maybe there's something we can do to mute or soundproof those doors so that the next guy that is wrongly convicted of a stick infraction doesn't get his civic door-closing duty misinterpreted as a tantrum."

Ozaukee Ice Center General Manager Chris Donovan sees this as an opportunity to be a pioneer in rink design.

"Those metal latches have been a fixture in hockey rinks forever.  But you know, it's time to step into the 21st century and take advantage of some technology that's out there. And if this idea works and takes off, we're going to make some mad cash, yo," Donovan says.

Donovan met with a travelling salesman named Lyle Lanley, whose previous work included building quiet monorail systems in Springfield, Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook.

"Sliding doors.  Sliding penalty box doors are the answer," said Lanley.  "Built into the dasher boards that are already in place.  Push a button, and they slide open.  Push that button again, and the door glides to a nice soft close, just like a minivan door...or maybe even a monorail door.  You know, there's nothin' on earth like a genuine bona-fide electrified six-car monorail.

"And they'll be hooked up to the scoreboard circuitry, and the doors will automatically open when the penalty expires.  Pretty soon, penalty box attendants at youth hockey games will just be used to count shots on goal."

“I can’t believe they actually might do it,” Kent said.  “I figured it was more of a Shelbyville idea.  But we are twice as smart as the people of Shelbyville, so it makes sense to me.”

Donovan says that we can expect installation of these new penalty box doors during the winter break.