For eight games, Sam Ruopp stewed on the sidelines serving a suspension before he was allowed to return to the Prince George Cougars' lineup Tuesday in Langley, where he shared in the spoils of their 4-3 overtime win over the Vancouver Giants.
Ruopp's one-sided dustup with Steven Owre of the Medicine Hat Tigers near the end of their game at CN Centre, Nov. 2, forced the 20-year-old Cougar captain to miss one-ninth of his final season of junior hockey and he says he's learned his lesson.
He's put the incident behind him and can't wait to show a Prince George audience what he and the Cougars are capable of achieving now that they're back to full strength again. After consecutive losses on the road last weekend in Everett (3-0) and Portland (6-3), the Cats have lost their first-overall league standing, which they held from since the start of the season, and have dropped from first to sixth in the CHL national rankings.
That's of no real concern for Ruopp. It's history. What matters most is the present task at hand - finding ways to beat the Victoria Royals, the Cougars' opponents tonight and Saturday at CN Centre.
"I'm very proud of my team, it was pretty tough watching and not being able to help out and I'm just really thankful to get out there on the ice with the guys and to play a game at home again," said Ruopp. "It's over and done with and I've learnt my lesson but I'm not going to change the way I play by any means. But definitely I'll kind of be more careful."
Despite getting outshot 46-22, the Giants gave the Cougars plenty of trouble Tuesday, just like they did in the previous three meetings between the two teams. After the Cougars fell behind 3-2 in the third period it took a Brendan Guhle howitzer from the point to tie it, with goalie Ty Edmonds on the bench, and a Brad Morrison strike to end it, 1:58 into the OT session.
Ruopp, a stay-at-home defenceman, was held without a point, and admitted to took him a few shifts to get into the game, but soon got back to his the bruising, physical form that got him drafted into the NHL in 2015, a fifth-round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
"It was a bit different adjusting to the speed and the pace but it was good, after the first period I felt great - same old Sam again," said Ruopp. "I loved how we didn't quit, we stuck to our systems and it may not have worked in the first and second periods but we didn't stop working and it worked put for us.
"Those are the type of games we'll have to learn how to win come playoff time. It was a fun game and it was quite special winning in overtime. Brad really rose to the occasion and that's what we expect from him."
Guhle joined the Cougars in a trade from Prince Albert Nov. 18. Now that Ruopp is back, the CN Centre crowd will get its first look tonight at the full-strength edition of the Cougars.
"I'm just excited to do what I can to help the team win playing in front of good crowd in Prince George," said Ruopp.
"I realized how fast our team is and especially when we come together and play the systems right, like we did in the game against Regina (a 5-2 Cougars' win). Watching from up top you get to see a lot more from the players than you do at ice level and it's always nice, especially at home, to be playing our best and you can definitely expect to see that from us this weekend."
The Cougars' loss in Everett was their third in three tries this season but it was a close game which ended with an empty-netter from the Silvertips and head coach Richard Matvichuk couldn't find much fault in his team.
"We played pretty well in Everett, a couple of mistakes that ended up in our net, but it was a real good hockey game," Matvichuk said. "It was quick turnaround in Portland (15 hours after the Everett game) but we don't use that as an excuse. We went into Vancouver knowing it was a must-win for us and the guys played a real good hockey game."
The Royals (14-12-2-0) have lost three straight, including Wednesday's 4-3 defeat at home to the Brandon Wheat Kings. Victoria is tied for third place in the B.C. Division with Kelowna, each with 30 points, 10 points behind the first-place Cougars. The Royals have a 5-5-0-0 record to show for their last 10 games, while the Cougars went 6-4-0-0.
"We know they play a high-tempo pressure game we need our best players to be our best players to win these hockey games,' said Matvichuk. "(Ruopp) is an all-around defenceman who moves the puck real well and sees the ice really well but knows his first job is to defend.
"He just brings composure and he's played at the next level so he knows what it takes. With the depth we have back there that we should be able to shut down the opposition's top players and so far we've been pretty fortunate to be able to do that and that's a big part of our success this year."
Coming off a 50-win season as defending regular-season champions, the Royals had a tough act to follow and they've had their struggles, but nobody in the Cougars camp expects anything less than two tough games against their speedy opponents. They know they'll have a tough time containing the five-foot-six jitterbug, Calgary Flames' draft pick Matthew Phillips, who had a natural hat trick Wednesday against the Wheat Kings. Phillips, a left winger, gets a ton of icetime and deservedly so. He leads the Royals with 19 goals and 30 points in 26 games.
"I'm looking forward to the challenge of shutting him down," said Ruopp. "I'll do everything I can to keep my game simple but just play for the team.
"These are two huge divisional games, you have to win those. The Royals have a bit of smaller team but we can't take it for granted. We can't be taking their record lightly. They play a hard game and they always show up against us. That seems to be a common trend with us having the record we have; every team that comes to play comes ready to play and that's what we want. It makes us better in the long run."
Four other Victoria forwards - Jack Walker (13-15-28), Dante Hannoun (10-17-27), Tyler Soy (12-13-25) and Ryan Peckford (7-16-23), as well as defenceman Chaz Reddekopp (3-16-19) have been producing at close to a point-per-game pace.
Two former Cariboo Cougar midgets - defenceman Ryan Gagnon and goalie Griffen Outhouse - have also been key contributors. Gagnon, a 20-year-old from Quesnel, was named captain of the Royals in November. He has 11 assists in 27 games. Outhouse, an 18-year-old from Williams Lake, has been the go-to goalie this season in Victoria.
Outhouse has played in 24 of their 28 games and sports a 14-9-1-0 record. His 2.64 goals-against average ranks fifth in the WHL and his .921 save percentage is third-best behind Everett's Carter Hart (.931) and Ty Edmonds of the Cougars (.924). Edmonds, whose 2.15 goals-against average ranks second to Hart's (1.59) will be the likely starter in goal for the Cats tonight.
There was some disappointment in Cougarville this week when no Cougars were invited to world junior team camps. On the bright side, that means they will have their stars around in what will be a busy December, with 12 games on the schedule.
"As a team we want guys to go to those camps but it just adds fuel to the fire and they use it as motivation to show them they deserve to be there," said Ruopp.
LOOSE PUCKS: Tonight is the start of a seven-game homestand for the Cougars. They'll play the Royals again Saturday, host Brandon on Tuesday, Seattle next Friday (Dec. 9-10) and Tri-City (Dec. 13-14)... Regina Pats captain Adam Brooks has won the WHL's player-of-the-month award for November. In 10 games last month the 20-year-old centre collected 26 points (four goals, 22 assists). He' currently toed for fourth in the WHL scoring race with 38 points, including nine goals, in just 17 games. Brooks, a fourth-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016, missed the first six games of the season while attending the Leafs' camp.
