At the beginning of the college hockey season, there are often many players, mostly freshmen, who register their first collegiate career points.
But when Boston University sophomore defenseman Ryan Ruikka scored his first career goal and then added his first career assist in Saturday night’s 2-1 win over Providence College, it was a bigger celebration than normal for those particular milestones.
Ruikka is in his third year at BU and because of a couple of devastating injuries, this is the first season in which he has been able to play.
Ruikka arrived on campus in the fall of 2008. On his very first day of practice that year, Ruikka injured his shoulder. That injury, along with another separate shoulder injury, kept him out for his entire freshman season. He redshirted for the season and turned his hopes to the next year.
But things did not get better for Ruikka in his second chance at a freshman season. In fact, Ruikka did not even make it to the first practice. He tore both menisci and an ACL on his second day of preseason conditioning with team strength and conditioning coach Mike Boyle.
So instead of manning the blue line for the Terriers, Ruikka constantly worked on rehabbing and recovering. He watched all the games from the stands and studied the team closely in order to learn the systems that a player typically learns on the ice.
When the rest of the team was practicing, Ruikka was alone in the team’s weight room, working out on a bike with nobody watching over him. Ruikka also focused on academics. A double major in mathematics and economics, he earned a 3.88 GPA in his freshman year and a 3.89 GPA in his sophomore year.
His hard work in those two seasons did not go unnoticed.
“Someone who really deserves some special recognition is Ryan Ruikka, the guy who came here and did not play for two years,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “He hadn’t even gotten on the ice. All you saw him do was rehab, rehab, rehab for two years.”
All of that rehab is finally starting to pay off. This season, Ruikka has been healthy enough to play regularly. As a stay-at-home defenseman, he does not score often, but he is second on the team in plus-minus rating with a plus-5 on the season.
On Saturday night, however, he finally grabbed the offensive spotlight.
At 13:59 in the first period, sophomore forward Alex Chiasson fed Ruikka a pass close to the blue line. Ruikka waited for a second at the top of the left faceoff circle and then roofed a shot above Providence goaltender Alex Beaudry’s left shoulder for the score.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Ruikka said. “Unbelievable to finally get out there and play with the boys. It was just a good pass by Chiasson, and I just got open in the middle and had a bunch of time, got my head up and got a good shot off.”
Ruikka returned the favor for Chiasson later in the period, when Chiasson gathered Ruikka’s rebound, held long enough to get Beaudry down on the ice, and then backhanded it into the net.
Given Ruikka’s series of injuries, it is quite a testament to his character that he was even able to take this ice this season. The fact that he had a multi-point night only five games into the season is more than impressive.
“I was wondering if he would still remember how to play after not playing for two years,” Parker said. “I think he’s played extremely well. Ryan Ruikka for Hobey Baker.”
Ruikka’s coach is not the only one with high praise for him. Based on the way Chiasson spoke about Ruikka, the elder defenseman has clearly made quite the impression on the younger forward.
“I came here as a freshman and right away, the first week, he was out for the year,” Chiasson said while sitting next to Ruikka. “He didn’t say one word last year. He was always the first one to the rink smiling. He was always there for us. He’s a good friend of mine. It shows a lot about him, his personality. He worked out really hard the summer, on and off the ice.”
“For myself, and I’m speaking for the whole team, we’re really proud of him for what he did the last two years.”
Both Parker and Ruikka acknowledged that the now 22-year-old sophomore is essentially a rookie on the team, but given what Ruikka has already overcome in his career at BU, the struggles that rookies typically face are nothing. He’s done the best he can to prepare himself, and now, it is just time for him to play.
“I’m definitely a rookie out there, but I learned the systems from practice and my freshman year, so I have a little bit of head start that way,” Ruikka said. “Otherwise I’m just doing what I can out there, making simple plays, and doing what coach asks. Injuries happen and you just have to battle through them. It worked out for me and now I’m getting to play, so it’s good.”
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