THINGS weren't going well for Marcus Houck, or any of his North Van Wolf Pack teammates for that matter, for much of their game Saturday night against the Aldergrove Kodiaks at Harry Jerome recreation centre.
Winless in their previous six games, the Wolf Pack were down again - 2-0 behind the powerhouse Kodiaks - and Houck, the team's third leading scorer, was welded to the bench after a few shifts of what his coaches believed was uninspired hockey.
But the tide turned late in the third period. With a little more than six minutes left, North Van's Brady Bjornson got the Wolf Pack on the board, firing in a loose puck to make it 2-1. Then with less than four minutes left, Houck called for a pass deep in the Aldergrove zone, muscled his way to the left slot, zipped a shot into the chest of a defenceman, fished the loose puck back out, made some space for himself and then slapped home a rocket of a shot to tie the game at two.
The Wolf Pack would lose in overtime but they salvaged a point thanks to Houck's goal. It was a sweet stickhandling sequence that not too many players in the B-level Pacific International Junior Hockey League could pull off, but for Houck was pretty standard.
"Really good hands," said head coach Matt Samson following the game. "He's probably our best finisher around the net. . . . He's got a nose for the net, he finds pucks and can bury it, as we saw tonight."
Those hands have never been a problem for Houck. His legs, however, are a different story. Leg, singular, would actually be more accurate these days.
Growing up in the North Shore Winter Club system, Houck was ready to make the jump to the junior level last season before fate - taking the form of a stepbrother on a jet ski - broadsided him.
Vacationing at a friend's cabin near Lillooet in August 2010, Houck was riding a jet ski when his sibling T-boned him, breaking both the tibia and fibula of his right leg.
"It was the worst experience of my life," said Houck. "It was a remote area . . . a bunch of different ambulances. It was crazy."
While doctors were surveying the damage Houck was wondering whether he would ever play hockey again.
"When it first happened the doctors said I might not be able to walk 100 per cent properly again," he said. A metal rod was inserted into his tibia, the larger of the two lower leg bones, to provide stability. Physiotherapy followed, three sessions a week for more than six months.
"At the beginning of this year I wasn't sure that I wanted to play," said Houck.
"(Physio) was just doing the exact same stuff over and over and over again. It was just a lot of hard work."
He did walk and, eventually, skate again. One year after the accident he was back on the ice testing out his leg, metal rod still firmly fastened. The Wolf Pack coaching staff and management, who moved the team from Squamish to North Van this summer, helped motivate him to get back into game shape for the 2011-12 season.
The odd benching aside, it's gone pretty well for the 18-year-old forward, a Sutherland secondary grad who is now taking classes at Capilano University. In the Wolf Pack's first-ever regular season game in North Vancouver, Houck corralled a loose puck and flicked it home - once again showing off those sweet hands - for what turned into the eventual game winner. Since then he's made a habit of scoring key goals, picking up the game winner in three of the team's four wins. He's now tied for the team lead with five goals and third with 11 points in 13 games.
His coaches are pushing him to do even more, focusing particularly on his legs.
"Obviously it was a very frustrating injury - he misses a whole year and it's a big year for him," said Samson. "He's smart enough, he's skilled enough, he's got to get the foot-speed up. . . . He's done well. I hope we get him right into top form around Christmas time."
"I'm still getting my legs under me, I can still get better," said Houck. "The more and more I get on the ice the more and more comfortable I feel with my leg and comfortable with my hands and all that."
His coaches aren't the only ones pushing him. Houck's brother Jackson is playing for the WHL's Vancouver Giants. His younger brother Jackson.
"He's alright," Marcus deadpans. It's a talented family - father Paul Houck was an elite player as well, playing pro hockey for nearly a decade, including 16 NHL games with the Minnesota North Stars.
Marcus has his sights set on helping North Van make the playoffs while he works towards a college scholarship. For now, however, he's happy just to have the chance to hit the ice with his Wolf Pack buddies.
"It feels good to be back on the ice with my teammates," he said. "The more and more I come to the rink the more and more I enjoy the game. It's just so fun being around a great group of guys in the dressing room. I feel like we have a really good team here, I feel like we can really turn some heads and make playoffs and make some noise in this league."
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The Wolf Pack play a rare weeknight home game tonight (Nov. 9) against the Port Moody Black Panthers starting at 7: 30 p.m. For a complete schedule visit www.northvanwolfpack.com.
aprest@nsnews.com
