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CODY, Mont. (AP) — When Hunter Ruschmeyer groggily awoke from the impact of the concussion he sustained, banging the back of his head on the ice at the Havre Ice Dome, the first thing he did was try to rip off a precautionary neck brace.
"I wanted to stand up and play," said the Yellowstone Quake junior hockey player who did not realize he was grievously hurt in a Feb. 6 game in Montana.
Instead, bleeding and stunned, Ruschmeyer was rushed to a hospital, then taken home to Minnesota by his parents for recovery.
On a Friday night a month later, Ruschmeyer made an unannounced return to Riley Arena, surprising teammates in the locker room a half hour before their game against the Helena Bighorns and then being greeted with an ovation by Quake fans.
"Nobody saw it coming," said teammate Max Doner. "Everybody went crazy. We went wild."
In a seemingly unlikely culmination to the ordeal, the 6-foot-3, 197-pound defenseman was also cleared to practice and scheduled to play against Great Falls in the final regular-season series.
"Unreal," said Quake president Bob Bole. "I would have bet a hundred-dollar bill we would have never seen him on the ice."
What began as a minor scrum on the ice in the North American Tier III contest had far-reaching repercussions for Ruschmeyer, his friends and family and his antagonist Trevor Jensen.
While being welcomed back to Cody like a missing brother - what players said he is - Ruschmeyer explained his viewpoint on the controversial incident and life-threatening health scare.
"I got scared when they said they were airlifting me," Ruschmeyer said. "I was pretty scared in the ambulance."
So was Bole. But that changed March 4.
"I was tickled pink," Bole said. "I told him, 'You scared the daylights out of me.'"
Yellowstone dominated the Glacier Nationals 9-2 in the game. Ruschmeyer became embroiled with Trevor Jensen at 17 minutes, 44 seconds, of the second period.
Jensen was whistled for four penalties, including fighting, a game ejection, unsportsmanlike conduct and deliberate intent to injure.
Jensen, suspended by the league for the rest of the season, immediately departed to start military service.
Problems began when Jensen punched Ruschmeyer in the face and yanked his protective helmet off before Ruschmeyer tipped over and smacked his head.
Then things briefly went fuzzy.
"I thought, 'Why is everybody out here?'" Ruschmeyer said of people surrounding him on the ice.
Ruschmeyer was transported to an emergency room in Havre and transferred by plane to a hospital in Great Falls. Bole traveled with him and teammates visited in both locations.
Ruschmeyer suffered some head internal bleeding and Bole said it is the worst on-ice injury a player has received in the 10-year history of the team.
For two hours Ruschmeyer was amnesic, not recalling the confrontation at all, but then it returned vividly.
However, he is not angry at Jensen.
"No, I should have just skated away," Ruschmeyer said. "It's kind of a fluke thing that happened."
The impact, however, was far-reaching. Quake players from elsewhere live with host parents in Cody during the season.
Shannon Wood calls the players she houses "my sons." Ruschmeyer, Doner and Evan Eriksmoen, who threw his arms around Ruschmeyer and hugged him the game March 4, live at her home.
When Wood learned of Ruschmeyer's injury, she intended to speed to Montana.
"I was headed out the door to Glacier," Wood said. "I was way upset."
Wood watched computer streaming of the incident and was crying before it ended.
"It was just pretty sickening," she said. "He had a seizure on the ice and his arm went up in the air."
Wood did not make the trip because Ruschmeyer's parents, Cory and Stacy, drove through the night from Minnesota.
Ruschmeyer spent two nights in the hospital, was bundled into the family car and returned to Hutchinson, Minnesota, for treatment.
At first, things were shaky.
"I couldn't stand up without throwing up," Ruschmeyer said.
Wood monitored Ruschmeyer from afar.
"It was a tough first week," she said. "I was crying a lot."
Teammates regularly phoned to keep Ruschmeyer's spirits up.
Every home game, Quake players hung his No. 7 jersey on a glass panel at Riley beside the bench, including March 4 before they knew Ruschmeyer was back.
When Tony Dahlberg scored, he skated to the jersey and leapt into the glass with a shoulder high-five tribute.
"We all kept him in our thoughts," Dahlberg said. "We were hoping he could come back."
In Minnesota, Ruschmeyer rode a stationary bike and jogged. Initially, he got headaches from the exercise, but they disappeared.
"I need to work my way back to the speed of the game," Ruschmeyer said.
Ruschmeyer's back-to-Cody timetable sped up when goalie Lance Knudson's parents Becky and Les were driving the 500 miles to Wyoming from North Dakota weekend games in early March.
"I met him and his father in St. Cloud (Minnesota)," Les Knudson said. "He's a good kid."
The drive ended 30 minutes to face-off. Ruschmeyer was neither dressed up nor in a Quake shirt but wore a gray Minnesota Wild sweatshirt when he poked his head into the Quake locker room.
"It was a great surprise," said Quake coach Ryan Theros, who was the only person in Cody in on the secret. "Everyone loves him being back. It's something special."
Ruschmeyer resumed practice March 8 at Riley. As a sign he was easing back in while teammates were split between blue jerseys and black jerseys for a scrimmage, he wore a yellow jersey.
In NFL training camps, quarterbacks are outfitted with red jerseys, almost a flashing light to warn defenders away from making extraneous hits. The same principle was applied to Ruschmeyer.
He skated hard and learned his running and bicycling helped his wind.
"It felt good," Ruschmeyer said as he stepped off the ice with the Quake for the first time in a month.
More than anything, it felt good to be back doing what he loves.
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