Medicine Hat Tigers forward Ryder Ritchie carries the puck up ice in the first period of a 3-1 win Monday over the QMJHL champion Moncton Wildcats at the 105th Memorial Cup hosted in Rimouski, Que.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
RIMOUSKI, QUE
Ryder Ritchie has found the right time to raise his game.
The Medicine Hat Tigers forward has continued to improve his performance as the season has wore on, reaching new heights throughout the team’s championship push and now at the Memorial Cup.
Ritchie led the 105th Memorial Cup in scoring through two games entering play Tuesday against the London Knights, scoring twice and tallying an assist in a 3-1 win Monday over the Moncton Wildcats to give him three goals and four points in the tournament. He added an empty net goal in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over London, giving him four goals and five points.
“My line mates are making it easy for me,” Ritchie said. “They’re finding me and I’ve just kind of tried to put myself in good spots for them. But obviously it’s all my line mates.”
Ritchie had nine goals and 18 points in the Tigers’ 18 games en route to capturing their sixth franchise title, beating the Spokane Chiefs 4-1 in the WHL Championship series, and now into Rimouski. His head coach says the 18-year-old has put in the work to get to this level of success.
“He’s really improved as the year’s gone on and his best hockey has been in the playoffs,” Willie Desjardins said postgame Monday. “It’s not just one or two games in the playoffs, he’s played well the whole playoffs. The biggest thing is he can score, he knows where the net is, but he’s more than that, too. He’s made some really good plays. For sure, it’s his best hockey and we’re certainly happy to see it at this time of year.”
Ritchie had two halves to his first season with the Tigers after being acquired in an August trade from the Prince Albert Raiders. He played five games to start the season, tallying an assist, before he took a falling Oasiz Wiesblatt’s skate to the face behind the Red Deer Rebels net on Oct. 9.
He missed a month, returning on Nov. 15, playing the rest of the season on a torrid pace. He had 29 goals and 60 points in 48 regular season games. Ritchie says it was a process to return to the game and to the level he expects to play at.
“It takes time and then you have to rebuild your confidence on the ice,” Ritchie said. “I’ve kind of tried to work as hard as I can and regain the confidence from getting hurt.”
Ritchie has skated alongside Gavin McKenna and Wiesblatt for a majority of the playoffs. On the other end of that accidental cut to the face, Wiesblatt says he’s been proud to see the steps Ritchie has taken throughout the year.
“It’s awesome to kind of see guys grow and get better every day,” Wiesblatt said. “For Ryder, he’s worked so hard and I cut him in the face earlier in the season, for him to come back and ready to go, he’s done a great job. But it’s a lot of fun seeing guys progress and that’s really fun.”
As the Tigers vie for a spot in the Memorial Cup finals, a win Tuesday would give them a bye to Sunday’s title match-up, a loss would put them in the semifinals Friday against the winner of Wednesday’s round-robin finale between the Moncton Wildcats and Rimouski Oceanic.
Desjardins says they’ll rely on the other parts of Ritchie’s game as they look to get back to the Memorial Cup finals for the first time since 2007.
“He’s been good, he scored (Monday), but he made about two or three really good passes,” Desjardins said. “One of the things that people don’t know about him, he hasn’t done in the past, is blocked shots. In our series against Spokane, he blocked three or four really big shots, so his game overall has been great and he was worked hard, too. He’s tracked back a lot, so we’re really happy with his performance.”
Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect the Tigers’ 3-1 win Tuesday over the London Knights.
