Toothless McHugh chips in huge for Rangers
Winger returns from broken jaw and has immediate impact in Kitchener victory
KITCHENER — Nick McHugh never saw it coming.
The Kitchener Rangers forward had just finished a shift and was sitting on the team’s bench talking to the coaching staff when the puck smacked him in the face against the Guelph Storm about a month back.
“I wasn’t watching the play,” said the 19-year-old. “The puck came out of nowhere. It felt like a really hard punch.”
McHugh’s mug was covered in blood, his left front tooth was gone, several other chiclets were chipped or twisted and his jaw was broken.
“It was pretty hectic,” he said. “I’ve chipped teeth before but nothing like this.”
The play — off a Guelph clearing attempt — sent the winger to the hospital for surgery where he had a steel plate inserted into his jaw.
He still has a face full of steel. With two metal bands wrapped around every tooth he kind of resembles Jaws, a henchman from James Bond movies.
But Friday, after more than a month of recovery, he returned to action.
And the Gloucester native showed little rust as he picked up two assists in Kitchener’s 5-2 win against the Saginaw Spirit at the Aud.
McHugh was wearing a full clear shield and was a few pounds lighter after weeks of a liquid diet. He was slotted on the team’s fourth line but was quickly promoted to the top unit.
“He has definitely been missed,” Rangers coach Jay McKee said. “He was a key player for us during our run last year.”
The Rangers went 3-8 with McHugh on the sidelines. Friday’s win snapped a two-game losing streak and upped the team’s record to 10-10-2-0.
McHugh set up Riley Damiani midway through the first period and Alexey Lipanov also scored to give the home side a 2-0 lead at the break.
Saginaw’s Danny Katic cut the advantage in half when he beat Rangers goalie Lucas Pfeil on a breakaway in the second period but Kitchener ruled the rest of the way.
McHugh connected with Damiani in the third yet again to help the Dallas Stars prospect collect his first career hat trick. Rickard Hugg also scored and had two helpers.
McHugh is expected to miss another couple of games next week when he gets the metal bands removed from his gob and has a root canal.
But the worst part is over. And that’s a relief for the Rangers since McHugh is off to the best start — nine points in 11 games — of his four-year junior career.
“It’s just good to be back,” he said. “It was a tough situation.”
Through it all, he never lost his sense of humour, even with a mouthful of hardware.
When asked about replacing his missing front tooth McHugh smiled and replied: “I’ll have to get a gold tooth.”