Rucks power Tigers to win over Vees in final game of B.C. trip

By James Tubb on October 27, 2025.

Medicine Hat News

The Ruck twins ended their trip home to B.C. in winning fashion.

The Medicine Hat Tigers’ twin forwards each scored as they beat the Penticton Vees 3-1 Monday night, ending the six-game road trip with a 3-2-1 record. It was the second-straight comeback win for the Tigers, overcoming a 2-0 deficit in a 4-3 overtime win Saturday at Kelowna over the Rockets.

“We’ve come back from a deficit the last two games, which is really hard on the road,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. “Penticton just had a big game against Everett in a really tough building, they had a good game there. So they’re a good team but I thought our guys played hard. This whole last part of the trip they played real hard, we had guys sick and it was a really, really great effort.”

Penticton opened the scoring Monday with the lone goal of the first period.

Former Swift Current Broncos forward Brady Birnie scored on a power play with 6:34 left in the opening frame for the 1-0 lead. His fifth of the season had Penticton ahead until 2:03 into the middle stanza when the Tigers got on the board.

Just as a Medicine Hat penalty kill expired, Veeti Väisänen carried the puck up the left wing. When he got into the Vees’ end, he sent a pass to the slot from the corner for Markus Ruck who tapped in his second on the year. Niilopekka Muhonen had the second assist on the tying goal.

That 1-1 lead stood after 40 minutes with the Tigers outshooting Penticton 20-16.

Almost as early as the Tigers tied the game in the middle frame, they grabbed a lead in the third.

On a power play, Liam Ruck had the puck at the top of the circles and wired a shot past Penticton net minder Andrew Reyelts for the 2-1 lead at 2:28. Markus and Tyson Moss had the assists on Liam’s fourth of the season. The Rucks had family and hundreds of friends and local minor hockey reps in attendance for the game.

That power play stemmed from a goaltender interference penalty on Penticton after forward Matteo Danis got his leg up and hit starter Jordan Switzer in the head with his thigh 1:59 into the third. Medicine Hat had their own penalty problems to deal with late.

Penticton had a power play in the last five minutes and fired chance after chance towards Switzer who turned aside more than a few chances with others blocked in the scramble to preserve the one-goal lead. He finished with 25 saves on the night.

The Tigers held on as Penticton pulled the goalie. Medicine Hat got the puck out of their end where after a couple of misses on the open cage, Ethan Neutens scored on the empty net with 53 seconds left for his first of the season and a 3-1 final. Misha Volotovskii and Dayton Reschny had the assists.

Medicine Hat outshot Penticton 30-26 and won the face-off battle 34-31. They were 1-5 on the power play, Penticton was 1-4.

The Tigers return from the B.C. trip with some days off before they head to Edmonton on Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest against the Oil Kings. Their next home game is Sunday, a 4 p.m. contest at Co-op Place against the Tri-City Americans.

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