NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers prospect Liam Ruck (middle) celebrates on the bench with line mate Brett Calhoon after scoring his first WHL goal in his debut Wednesday night, an 8-0 victory at Co-op Place over the Regina Pats.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers had a lot of reasons to celebrate Wednesday night.
An 8-0 victory at Co-op Place over the Regina Pats was only the tip of the needle for the Tigers and the 2,305 fans in attendance.
A goal and an assist in the WHL debut of Liam Ruck and the Tigers recording their 1,900th franchise regular season win led the way in what was an already standout win for Medicine Hat.
The Tigers become the third team in WHL history to reach the milestone, doing so in their 53rd year of operation, all under the Maser family. The historic win is an honour not lost on assistant coach Josh Maser.
“That’s a lot of wins and this team means a lot to the people if Medicine Hat, it’s a really nice milestone,” Maser said.
He couldn’t pick a favourite out of those 1,900 regular season wins but says he’ll never forget the Tigers’ Memorial Cup clincher over the Oshawa Generals in 1987.
“I used to have that game memorized, the play-by-play of that win,” Maser said.
The Tigers secured win No. 1,900 in standout fashion, capitalizing on the only two power plays they had and holding the Pats off the scoresheet, with Evan May stopping all 23 shots to record his second career WHL shutout.
It was a win the Tigers are proud of, not only because it puts them in sole position of first place in the Eastern conference and ties them for first in the WHL, but because they didn’t cheat on plays for eight goals. It was a game of Tigers hockey that paid off through 60 minutes.
“We stuck to our game plan, we were reloading, getting above in the zone, our forecheck was good,” Maser said. “We were thinking about the team, we weren’t thinking, ‘OK, it’s 4-0, let’s run off for the points here. There’s a lot of maturity.”
Oasiz Wiesblatt opened the scoring and finished with two on the night, Cayden Lindstrom potted two highlight reel goals (with an assist) to extend his team lead in goals (18) and points (31). Bogdans Hodass recorded a four point night (one goal, three assists), Kadon McCann and Shane Smith each scored and the youngest Tiger made the most of his WHL debut.
Ruck had opportunities to score in the first period that were turned aside before he capitalized in the second frame. The 15-year-old picked up a bouncing puck in the high slot, burst toward the net while dipping left and right around defenders, before wiring a shot past the Regina goaltender for his milestone tally.
“The first one’s always a big one, it only happens once and it’s really cool to get the win there,” Ruck said.
He was mauled by line mates on the ice and welcomed by others on the bench afterwards, a showcase of emotions that stood out to the prospect.
“It was really cool having them all jump on there,” Ruck said. “Those two (McCann and Brett Calhoon) were really good to play with all night, they made my job easy for sure.”
The Osoyoos, B.C. product joined the Tigers earlier in the week alongside twin brother and fellow Tiger Markus, who is expected to make his WHL debut Saturday when they host the Brandon Wheat Kings.
Liam’s performance gave Tigers fans a glimpse into an already exciting future, the idea of adding his offensive talents to a core already filled with the likes of Gavin McKenna, Lindstrom, Andrew Basha and other weapons Medicine Hat has drafted.
Maser remarked after the win how impressed he was with Liam’s debut and how he didn’t seem to be phased playing at the older age level and making an immediate impact.
“He had a lot of confidence coming in and I think he’s gotten faster even since camp, he’s worked on his foot speed,” Maser said. “He’s such a smart player, he did a lot of good things well. I can’t say enough.”
While Wednesday provided a lot of excitement in Tigerland, the focus quickly shifts to the weekend and the second matchup in a week against the Wheat Kings. The Tigers beat the Wheat Kings 3-2 last Saturday, a game they led 3-1 heading into the final period before allowing an early goal and clamping down to preserve the lead.
Brandon is coming off a 5-3 win Wednesday at Edmonton over the Oil Kings and will be in action tonight at Red Deer taking on the Rebels. They’re expected to enter Co-op Place with revenge in mind and to combat that, it’ll take another round of Medicine Hat sticking to Tigers hockey and playing the type of game that got them to 1,900 wins.
“We have to be disciplined, we have to stay out of the box,” Maser said. “They’ve got some skill in (Nate) Danielson, they’ve got a lot of speed up front. We have to play a 200-foot game and stick to all the things we do well. We have to dictate to them what’s going to happen more than reacting to what they do.”
