Goalies stand tall as illness strikes

In the end, the four-game sweep of the Brandon Wheat Kings by the Calgary Hitmen will be remembered for its goaltending.

Brandon’s Filip Ruzicka of Trinec, Czechia, and Calgary’s Eric Tu of White Rock, B.C., were both sensational for all four games, with Hitmen head coach Dustin Friesen saying it was something to see.

“It was unbelievable,” Friesen said. “They were both fantastic. Ruzicka made it really, really hard on us and made a lot of saves, big saves, and Tu-sy was fantastic as well. In that first period he made a couple of huge ones to allow us to stay in the game and stick with it.

“And that’s just this game. There were multiple saves in other games as well.”

The numbers don’t lie.

Ruzicka stopped 175 of the 187 shots he faced for a .936 save percentage, and Tu matched him save for save, stopping 138 of the 146 shots he faced for a .945 save percentage.

“It was so much fun,” the six-foot-three, 198-pound Tu said. “Ruzicka had an awesome series. He made so many saves for their team and kept them in a lot of games. Being the goalie on the other end, it’s definitely a very competitive series and you’re trying to make that next save and so is the guy on the other side.

“It was a lot of fun competing against him.”

Remarkably, both goalies are 2008-born players in their 17-year-old seasons. Ruzicka turned 18 two weeks ago, while Tu turns 18 in October.

Ethan Moore led the series with five goals, including all four game winners. He’ll leave it with a healthy respect for Ruzicka.

“He’s a heckuva goalie,” Moore said of Ruzicka. “We were putting up 50 shots almost every game and it was a one-goal game. He’s an unbelievable goalie and he’s going to be unreal.”

The six-foot-seven, 230-pound Ruzicka, whose transfer to Canada was blocked by his Czech club last fall, didn’t arrive in Brandon until a month after camp started. He played his way into the starting role, and will almost certainly be picked by somebody in the upcoming National Hockey League draft.

“I think Eric showed his best and I tried to too,” Ruzicka said. “It’s hard now because we lost. It’s tough. I hope next year will be great.”

To make it even crazier, he wasn’t healthy.

The Wheat Kings started to feel the impact of either the flu or food poisoning on Monday night, about 12 hours after they got home from Calgary. With six or seven players involved, Brandon actually reached out to the league to see if Tuesday’s game could potentially be rescheduled if they didn’t have enough healthy players.

“It was a conversation,” Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said. “We didn’t know how many of our guys would be able to play. It was a road we had never been down before and I know Calgary was aware of it too.

“It was deemed that unless your roster is completely depleted, you have to play. Obviously there is a window when you need to have series completed and stretching it out doesn’t work.”

Incredibly, the sickness involved both Brandon goalies. That means Ruzicka, who was easily his team’s best player in the series, wasn’t close to 100 per cent.

“Filip puked all the way from Virden on Tuesday,” Murray said. “We didn’t have a goalie at practice (Wednesday).”

Murray had to shake his head and chuckle about it after Thursday’s game. A narrow pathway to success against a hard-working Hitmen club became just a bit thinner with this development.

“It was a bad time for a bug or food poisoning,” Murray said. “We don’t know what it was to be running through the team. I think anybody who followed the series knows we had some guys missing here and there and had some guys who played through spending a lot of time in the bathroom.

“It was a tough time for that. It certainly adds on to the problems, but that’s life. Sometimes it throws you curveballs and we certainly got one.”

Friesen sympathized, but noted the Hitmen weren’t 100 per cent either.

“We had some guys earlier who were sick who played through it,” Friesen said. “It’s definitely unfortunate, but sometimes that’s part of playoffs.”

At the same time, the Hitmen managed to rise to all the big moments in the series. Friesen has some theories why.

“I think it comes down to small details, and that makes a big difference in the playoffs,” Friesen said. “I think we got contributions from up and down our lineup from 12 forwards and all six D, which you need in playoffs because it’s a war of attrition sometimes. I think that was a factor for us getting those results, especially with some overtime games.”

Moore thinks a few things put his team over the top.

“Our D-zone was sharp, our goaltending was outstanding, Tu-sy stood on his head all series every game,” Moore said. “Everyone in front of him played a solid game.”

And that’s why the young goaltender is excited about his team’s chances.

“I think we’re just getting started as a team,” Tu said. “We have so much upside. The second round, I think, is going to be even more exciting.”

There won’t be a second round for Brandon, which will graduate their 2005-born overagers Nick Johnson, Luke Mistelbacher and Grayson Burzynski, plus the 2006-born college-bound trio of Caleb Hadland, Jordan Gavin and Max Lavoie.

One player they will have back is Ruzicka, and the bad news for the rest of the WHL for next year is that he is already looking ahead to making a bigger impression.

“It’s been a good experience all year long, from the start to the end of the season,” Ruzicka said. “This is my first playoff here, and I hope next year it will be better.”

MOST SPORTSMANLIKE

The WHL released its six finalists for the Brad Hornung Memorial Trophy as the league’s most sportsmanlike player, and Brandon’s Jordan Gavin was on the list.

The others are Braeden Cootes, (Prince Albert Raiders, from Sherwood Park, Alta.), Markus Ruck (Medicine Hat Tigers, Osoyoos, B.C.), Matias Vanhanen (Everett Silvertips, Nokia, Finland), Ryden Evers (Penticton Vees, Burnaby, B.C.), and Alex Weiermair (Portland Winterhawks, Los Angeles).

TOP ROOKIE

The finalists for the Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year are

Kale Dach (Calgary, Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.), Ben MacBeath (Calgary, Calgary), Brock Cripps (Prince Albert Raiders, Victoria, B.C.), JP Hurlbert (Kamloops Blazers, Allen, Texas), Matias Vanhanen (Everett, Nokia, Finland), Jacob Kvasnicka (Penticton Vees, Burnsville, Minn.).

pbergson@brandonsun.com