All three Ruck brothers find scoresheet, Tigers topple ‘Canes 5-3 in preseason debut

“It might be the only time I ever get to play with them, so it was a dream.”

Not only did they get the chance to play together and live out a lifelong dream, but they were in the starting lineup.

“Once I knew that I was going to play in a preseason game, with my brothers on the first line, starting, it was a great feeling – I’ve never felt that before,” he added.

The Ruck clan made the most of their opportunity, combining for seven points in the 5-3 win.

Liam led the way with a hat trick. He also assisted on an overtime goal from Markus in some bonus hockey, which didn’t show on the official scoresheet.

“We’ve spent a lot of hours playing mini-sticks in our basement and we’ve had blasts down there so to go out and share some time on the ice was even more special,” mentioned Liam.

Landon also got in on the scoring, picking up a primary assist on Markus’ first of the night, which tied the game at three 5:31 into the third period.

“It was a great seam pass,” Markus remarked.

“I saw him kind of looking at me, and he made a nice hard pass, right on the tape, and gave me a lane,” he added.

The news that all three would be playing together was a welcome surprise for the entire Ruck family, including their parents, who had left Medicine Hat at the conclusion of training camp but wasted no time hopping back in the car to make the drive to Lethbridge and see their three sons play together.

“Willie called me three or four days ago near the end of camp and asked if me and Markus wanted to play and said we’d be on a line with our younger brother, so that was a pretty obvious answer that we’d say yes to that,” said Liam.

Cash Christie and Ben Meyer split the game between the pipes for the Tigers, with Cash starting the first half and turning aside 18 of 19 shots faced.

“I thought he was great,” said Tigers Associate Coach Joe Frazer.

“He’s really maturing, you could see it in his game tonight, he’s calm confident…made some big saves, he was just calm and cool back there, I thought he was great tonight.”

Meyer took over the back half and the additional overtime frame, making 14 saves on 16 shots.

“Awesome to see him have some adversity there and then bounce back. He didn’t dwell on it, just stayed the course, stopped the next shot and made two huge saves in overtime before we scored,” added Frazer.

Will Furhman had an impactful game on the blue line for the Tigers, generating several scoring chances from the backend while adding a heavy dose of physicality.

The Tigers’ lone non-Ruck goal came courtesy of a Luke Bodtker net-front drive with 3:25 remaining in regulation and would go on to serve as the eventual game-winner.

The Tigers and Hurricanes will meet once more this preseason, Saturday night inside Co-op Place before the clubs begin the regular season against one another in Lethbridge on September 18th.

by Will Bryant

All three Ruck brothers find scoresheet, Tigers topple ‘Canes 5-3 in preseason debut

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