NEWS PHOTOS JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forwards Markus and Liam Ruck celebrate after scoring in an 8-4 win March 6 over the Red Deer Rebels and a 6-0 win Tuesday over the Regina Pats respectively. Liam and Markus lead the WHL in scoring entering the penultimate weekend of the WHL's regular season.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Markus and Liam Ruck mirror one another as twins on and off the ice. They’re also mirroring their own history in their sophomore WHL season.
The Medicine Hat Tigers brothers are mirror twins, Markus shoots left, Liam shoots right, Markus the playmaker, Liam the goalscorer.
Entering play tonight in Lethbridge against the Hurricanes, the pair sit first and second in the WHL in scoring, with the elder twin Markus first with 98 points, Liam – eight minutes younger – is one point behind.
The pair says they haven’t paid too much attention to stats, getting some grief from their teammates about sitting atop the league.
“It’s pretty cool,” Liam said. “A lot of credit goes to the guys in the room, they have made this year so fun for us, and the coaches have been great playing us, it’s been fun.
“It’d be cool to hold on to, but there’s a lot of great players in the league so we’ll see how it plays out.”
Markus leads the way with 19 goals and 98 points, Liam has 41 goals and 97 points, both playing 64 games. The elder Ruck leads all CHL skaters with 79 assists, coming off a four-assist effort in Tuesday’s 6-0 win at Co-op Place over the Regina Pats. Liam, who had a pair of tallies and an assist Tuesday, sits third in the WHL with 41 goals.
They’ve jumped their production from their first season, getting more of a role at both even strength and special teams. Liam is improving on a 25-goal, 41-point season, and Markus has more than tripled his eight-goal, 29-point rookie season. It’s been more of a jump than head coach Willie Desjardins expected from the Osoyoos, B.C. products.
“When the year started I thought they’d get 70 points and that’d be a pretty good year, so for them to be where they’re at it’s great to see and they deserve it,” Desjardins said. “They work hard every day, they’re in every day training and it’s great to see.
The last time the Rucks led a league in scoring was in 2022-23 in the CSSHL, their last season at U15. Liam had 53 goals and 90 points, Markus had 22 goals and 87 points. It was also their WHL Draft year, finishing a couple months before they were selected ninth and 21st by the Tigers.
Almost fittingly, in their NHL Draft year, they’re back atop another league.
“It kind of came out of nowhere for us,” Markus said. “We have a lot of great teammates around us, giving us lots of opportunity. We’re trying to make the most of it and having lots of fun doing it.”
Both have spoken with multiple NHL clubs as the year has progressed, getting the full NHL Draft-year experience. Liam was ranked 26th among North American skaters on NHL Central Scouting’s mid-season rankings, Markus 31st. TSN’s director of scouting Craig Button has Liam at 22, Markus at 29.
There’s a lot of pressure that comes in a player’s Draft year, Liam says he’s handled it by keeping the it all out of his mind, focusing on the game.
“Just try not to put too much thought into it, they’re going to draft the best players available, so just playing my best every night and they’ll make their choices,” Liam said. “It’s going to be fun playing the rest of the year here.”
The pair will get their second look at the WHL playoffs in a few weeks, the first time they’ve been relied upon as a pair of the top options on the Tigers. During the run to the franchise’s sixth Ed Chynoweth Cup, Liam had six goals and 10 points in 18 games, Markus had a goal and four points in 14 games.
For Markus, scratched in all but Game 4 of the WHL Championship series, he says this postseason is an opportunity to showcase their skills at the most important time of the WHL year.
“It was awesome last year just getting to watch playoffs for the most part, play a little,” Markus said. “But even last year, when we were called on, just having to be ready every shift, not taking a shift off, because in playoffs, every shift matters.”
Junior hockey teams, especially those lucky enough to win championships, rely on the veterans to lead the way.
The Tigers are no exception, they’ll be leaning on their elder players and experienced blue line come the playoffs. But they’ll also be looking to the pair who lead the league to light the way in ‘almost’ identical fashion, Desjardins says.
“It’s hard to win with guys who are 17, usually it’s your 19-, 20-year-olds that carry you, so it’s different,” Desjardins said. “It doesn’t happen very often in our league, but those guys are exceptional players. So are (Noah) Davidson and (Shaeffer) Gordon-Carroll, they’re really, really good players. So we’re fortunate they’re that quality of players.”
