Medicine Hat Tigers prospect Markus Ruck circles the faceoff dot ahead of the Tigers' 6-1 win Saturday night at Co-op Place over the Brandon Wheat Kings.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The two youngest Medicine Hat Tigers made quite the impressions their first time donning the orange and black.
Markus and Liam Ruck made their WHL debuts over the Tigers’ last two games, each standing out in their own way.
Liam notched a goal and an assist to an 8-0 blowout Wednesday over the Regina Pats, while Markus, playing mostly out of his natural position of centre, won a key faceoff and also saved a goal in a 6-1 win Saturday over the Brandon Wheat Kings.
While he would have liked to get on the scoresheet like his younger twin brother, Markus took pride in pulling what would have been a slight tap-in goal for Brandon out of the crease.
“I came from the bottom of the net, saw a guy open out front so I knew I had to knock it out or it was going to end up in the back of the net,” Markus said.
Markus, like his brother, said the nerves subsided after the first shift, while each Ruck had focused on just hitting the net during their traditional solo rookie laps ahead of warmups. Markus had the unique experience of watching his brother make his debut and then hitting the ice for his own three days later.
After watching and playing in the combined 120 minutes of WHL action, he sees what it takes to perform at the high level and is looking forward to putting in the work to be at that stage full time as soon as he can.
“The hard work that gets put in there and how hard guys try on the gym and on the ice, it’s crazy.”
Both play full time with the Okanagan Hockey Academy’s U18 team and will spend some more time with the Tigers before rejoining their CSSHL club by next weekend. Head coach Willie Desjardins liked what he saw from Markus on Saturday and says they’ve exceeded expectations so far.
“He was really good, both of those Ruck boys are good players,” Desjardins said. “It’s exciting to have them, it’s hard when you’re 15 to come in but he came in and did a good job, won a faceoff clean when he was out at centre. It was good, it was tough because it wasn’t his natural position but a really good future for both those guys.
“It’s exciting when you see how well they did.”
There was also a lot of deserved excitement around forward Andrew Basha, who put up his second career four-goal night, adding an assist for five points on Saturday over the Wheat Kings.
He assisted on Rhett Parsons’ third goal of the season, and the only goal he didn’t contribute on was a highlight redirection from defenceman Dru Krebs, who scored with a redirection while laying on his stomach in the slot. Krebs’ goal was his first of the season and first since he scored a hat trick March 17.
While happy with his own offensive output, Basha spoke about the Tigers’ 14 goals in the past two games and how that’s a byproduct of their defensive transition game.
“Good defences leading to good offence, we only allowed one goal this week so all the work we’ve done in practice and making sure we’re shutting things down has been really good for us, allowing for our speed come into play,” Basha said. “Our speed is our No. 1 thing and shutting them down when they’re trying to transition so we can go back in the offensive zone is our bread and butter.”
The Tigers have surrendered just 69 goals in 24 games this season, tied for the fourth fewest league wide. They’ve also scored 104, the third most out of the 22 teams. The Tigers have put together three wins in a row and are 7-2-1 in their past 10 games. While there’s been continued flashes of success, Desjardins continues to say there is lots of work still to be done and credits goaltending for a lot of that success.
“(Brandon) had lots of chances, the difference right now is our goaltending, our goaltending has been so good,” Desjardins said. “It’s frustrating for other teams when they don’t score, they get down. They get one and they get life and it’s a totally different game. So we owe a lot to our goaltenders here lately.”
The Tigers have a “three headed monster” in net as described by Zach Zahara, who made 23 saves for the win Saturday, his fifth victory in his fifth appearance of the season.
The 18-year-old Zahara, alongside Evan May, 19, and Ethan McCallum, 17, strung together three straight wins in three straight starts over the past week, with McCallum making 26 saves on Nov. 18 at Brandon and May shutting out the Pats with 23 saves.
The trio’s combined save percentage (.904) and goals against average (2.78) has them among the league’s best net minders.
“It’s pretty cool to have, any guy can play, which is really good for the guys,” Zahara said.
