Welcome to the Ontario Hockey League Cedric Ralph.
The newest member of the Guelph Storm got his feet wet Sunday a the Sleeman Centre in a 5-4 loss to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
Ralph, a 5-foot-9, 165-pound centre drafted by the Storm in the seventh round of last year's draft, signed with the team on Friday. On Saturday he took the warm up in Hamilton but didn't play in a 5-3 loss to the Bulldogs.
Ralph, whose sister attends school in the United States on a soccer scholarship, was considering attending Yale University but instead chose the Storm.
This season he led a poor tier two Lindsay Muskies team in scoring as a 16 year old.
"I was having a bit of a back and forth between Guelph and NCAA and it was decided Thursday that we'd sign," said Ralph, the son of a Peterborough police officer. "We went back and forth but I chose here. I believe that was the best decision for me."
A Peterborough Petes fan growing up, Ralph said he grew up wanting to play in the OHL, even if playing a year of tier two hockey opened his eyes to the NCAA route.
"This is my dream, so I went for it," he said.
He scored 57 points in 36 games during his draft year. His size, not skill, saw him drop to the seventh round.
"I guess size was the big thing. I just go out everyday on the ice proving that size doesn't matter. That's something I pride myself on and try to show," he said.
It was a bit of a rough start to his career.
Storm coach Jarrod Skalde wanted to get the nerves out of the way as soon as possible so he put Ralph out there for the opening faceoff. Trouble was, Sault Ste. Marie started its top line and 40-goal scorer Zach Senyshyn made it 1-0 just 19 seconds into the game.
That led to some obligatory chirping from the Soo players.
"Nice way to start your career," Senyshyn said to Ralph as the teams skated to their benches after the goal.
"I thought 'let's get him right in there,'" Skalde said of his decision to start Ralph.
"I've been in that situation where you're waiting for your first shift and if you're on the fourth line you're waiting and waiting ... we decided 'let's get him out there.'"
Sunday's game was an entertaining and exciting, albeit flawed, affair that saw the Storm lose its eighth straight game.
The Soo jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first period but the Storm battled the entire game, outshooting the visitors 31-27 but never drawing even after the Soo took a 2-1 lead.
"Obviously not the start we wanted, but I thought we battled back, gave ourselves a chance and fought right to the end," Skalde said.
"I wasn't happy with some things in Hamilton ... it's about making sure we compete the right way and coming up with some pucks. When we compete like we did in the second and third period today, we have a chance," Skalde said.
They thought they had tied the game in the third but after video replay it was ruled the puck was knocked in the Soo net with a high stick.
Gabe Guertler's goal at 7:47 of the third stood up to be the game winner. That goal made it 5-3 at the time, but Jake Bricknell again made it a one-goal game with a breakaway goal a minute later.
The Storm had trouble gaining possession of the puck as the clock wound down and couldn't get Michael Giugovaz out of the net. In the end they only had 20 seconds of possession to try and get the equalizer but couldn't get a shot on net.
Guelph hosts the Erie Otters on Friday night.
