Newcomer, Ken Ruddick
photograph by Darren Carroll

It was definitely some kind of omen. At around 4am on the first official night of the Ice Bats’ ’97-’98 season, 20-some hockey players found themselves sitting by the side of a desolate two-lane road in Ellinger, Texas, home of Hruska’s Instant Shopping, a Texaco, and — at least on this particular stretch of Hwy71 — not much else. The Austin hockey club’s most recognizable symbol, its gleaming, custom-decorated Bat Bus, had failed on its first night of use, sputtering to a stop about halfway between Houston and Austin. The players, having suffered similar mishaps at far more unpleasant times (February) in far more unpleasant places (Saskatachewan) were unfazed. But still, those with a tendency towards superstition or symbolism had to wonder: Could this be a harbinger of things to come? As it turns out, yes. The Bats had won its exhibition game in Lake Charles, Louisiana earlier that night, and that formula has held fast ever since: Going into this weekend’s (November 1-2) games the Ice Bats, bolstered by a 6-0 start, are 9-3. But the bus, saddled with battery failure in San Angelo and a malfunctioning heater in El Paso, was 0-3.

When we left the Bats at the end of last year’s first-round playoff series, the team had basically run out of gas. Incredibly, that was also the cause of the first bus breakdown (more serious than it sounds — with diesel engines you can’t just fill ‘er up). Now the bus has a new driver, and the Bats have a whole mess of explosive new players. Neither entity is likely to come up short in the energy department again.

The Windsor Whiz Kids

photograph by Darren Carroll

The talk of Austin hockey fans — and indeed, the entire Western Professional Hockey League — has been Tim Findlay and Ryan Pawluk. The 21-year-old rookies have a special link on the ice — they’ve been playing together since they were 8, and in their first month as pros they’ve quickly established themselves as elite scorers — Findlay tops the league with 17 goals, and Pawluk has assisted on most of them while scoring seven himself. Stars in the “major junior” Ontario Hockey League who only came to Austin after missing roster spots at higher levels (Findlay with the International League’s Detroit Vipers, Pawluk with the Canadian National Team), it would be easy for the two Windsor, Ontario natives to be cocky. Though not fully developed, their raw skills are such that if they were a few inches taller (both of them are just 6′) the only way they would have seen Texas would have been with the Dallas Stars. Whether it’s in the NHL or a higher level of the minors, both men are hungry to move up. As such, they are eager to learn, and remain deferential to the team’s veterans, who still treat them, with both affection and barbed aggression, like rookies rather than stars. In hockey, it doesn’t matter how talented you are — character and intelligence are what counts: The ultimate praise is “He works hard.” Pawluk and Findlay don’t ever forget that, and they don’t ever take good fortune for granted either — every time they or linemate Mike Jackson scores, the celebration is sweet and unsullied, a pure expression of joy that is about play, friendship, and freedom, as well as victory.

A Boy Named Tex

This whole hockey in the Southwest thing isn’t so far-fetched when you realize that Canadians and Texans share a lot of similarities, including the oil bidness, small town values, and life on the farm. The Ice Bat who best embodies these parallels is Brian Fairfield, a rookie goalie from Omemee, Ontario whose Western shirt/Resistol hat/Wrangler jean uniform finds him fitting right in. His teammates promptly dubbed him “Tex” and “Cowboy.” The 19-year-old Fairfield spent the first 11 games hungry for action; starter Chad Erickson had been working the nets full-time, with Christian Soucy playing a couple of games before getting a call-up to the Houston Aeros. As a huge country music fan, Fairfield might not have minded if he’d been left behind as the third-stringer last weekend when the Bats traveled to Fort Worth — Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn were at the Erwin Center. Instead he saw his first action of the season, giving up one goal in mop-up duty during a 6-0 loss to the Fort Worth Brahmas.


Rudick and friends wait out a fog delay.
photograph by Darren Carroll




photograph by Darren Carroll

If You Haven’t Noticed Them, They Must be
Doing a Good Job

The Bats defensive corps includes Ryan Anderson, Kyle Haviland, and Chris Morque, all returnees from last year’s team, all known for their crunching hits, stubborn crease-clearing and active fists. Newcomer Ken Ruddick has also attracted immediate attention — he’s a speedy offensive defenseman (otherwise known as a “fourth forward”) with head-turning moves and a bulging stat sheet. Less ballyhooed roles are filled by newcomers Jeff Kungle, who is down from the Aeros, and Cory Fletcher. As a rookie, Fletcher is not always perfect, but his hallmark is simple, conservative stickhandling, staying in position, making the correct first pass, not screwing up. Not glamorous, but essential. Kungle contributes offense and doesn’t mind banging around in front of the net, but his signature contribution is what he doesn’t do: Watch him as he weaves back in the face of an opposing forward’s rush. The impatient fan wants to see him poke at the puck, make a move, take a risk, stir things up. He never does. Instead, he stays with the play like he’s supposed to, guiding him to the side, avoiding the impulses that lead to penalties, mistakes, and goals-against.

Rookie Ryan Pawluk
photograph by Darren Carroll

Requiem for the Girndog

The WPHL has expanded to 12 teams this year, and as with any expansion, some of the players came from the original clubs. The Bats’ worst loss was Rick Girhiny, the man who scored the first goal and took the first penalty in Ice Bats history. He doesn’t usually score goals, mind you — the scrappy center is more about defense and leadership. So much so that Girhiny is now the captain of the Odessa Jackalopes. During the Bats’ first visit to Odessa, Girhiny and Ryan Anderson got into a scrap very quickly, but both of them couldn’t help grinning a little.

Scene of the Crime

The thing the Ice Bats are playing for is in El Paso, where the championship banner hangs as an insulting reminder of last year’s playoffs. The Bats returned to the land of the Buzzards saying the expected things about it being just another game, but even if they really believed that, El Paso changed things when they made the visitors take the ice in advance of the pre-game festivities, which included spotlit introductions and a “championship highlights video.” Hey, if you think the other team has scabs, may as well pick at ’em. Sure enough, those highlights included lots of Ice Bats, though despite their losing effort in the playoffs, they came off pretty well in the video. “All I saw was me throwing lefts,” tough guy Jeremy Thompson wryly noted, and he wasn’t the only one. More distractions were provided by Claude the Happy Trumpetier, a French-Canadian hockey legend who leads cheers and charges while blowing “Tequila,” “Pop Goes the Weasel,” and, of all things, “Hava Nagila.” He also tries to distract the goalie by holding a poster of Pamela Lee up to the glass; if that doesn’t work he switches to a poster of some shirtless boys. But despite all these trimmings, the Bats won serving notice that though there’s still a long season ahead, last year’s championship is past its sell-by date.

The Zamboni man Josh Blake cometh
photograph by Darren Carroll


Jason Cohen is a contributing editor at Texas Monthly. This is the first in a series of articles by Cohen covering the Ice Bats’ second season.
The work of freelance photographer Darren Carroll has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Time, and Newsweek. He is working independently on a season-long photo documentary of the Austin Ice Bats.

This article appears in November 14 • 1997 and November 14 • 1997 (Cover).

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