Skating Around the Globe: Ratcliffe Dominates in Danbury and Beyond

DANBURY — Professional hockey has taken Jacob Ratcliffe from one corner of the world to another. And flying across the International Date Line each year has presented opportunities to succeed in those places.

A Canterbury, New Zealand, native, Ratcliffe has won championship after championship in pro hockey, one in his first season with the Hat Tricks in 2023 and two in the Australian Ice Hockey League with the Canberra Brave in 2024 and the Sydney Bears in 2019.

“It’s special for me, especially being from New Zealand, obviously, and being from the southern hemisphere in general,” Ratcliffe said. “The Australian League is sort of the top level down there and to be able to play in that league and have a chance to win a couple of titles have been some of the best experiences I’ve had. I think winning a championship at any level, whether it’s here, in college, in juniors, or in the Australian League, is the ultimate goal no matter where you play. I think I’ve been really fortunate enough to have been part of some special groups of guys that’ve been able to get across the line and that’s what motivates me to keep going every year and during this season.”

From exposure to different levels of talent to taking the ice near his hometown during the FPHL offseason, playing in the Australian League brings Ratcliffe added opportunity to grow his professional career.

“It’s a really different kind of league, you’ve got a mixture of guys,” Ratcliffe said. “That league happens during their winter, which is the summer over here. Because of that, they’re able to bring in a high level of imported players who have really good resumes. A lot of them played in the ECHL, AHL, and really high leagues in Europe. So, there are better players than you would see in the FPHL, but every team is allowed only four of those. And then, on the flip side, you’ve got a lot of local players who maybe aren’t at the level of players in this league, so it’s a really interesting mix of players. But it makes for an exciting game and a lot of high-scoring games.”

Although Ratcliffe has spent most of the past 13 years developing his hockey career in North America, the 27-year-old forward’s first opportunity to play the sport stood just minutes away from his home in Canterbury.

The first rink Ratcliffe skated at in Christchurch, New Zealand, looks different from many North American professional hockey rinks. It seats 700 spectators and is the city’s lone rink. But it was all he needed to begin playing at the age of 7.

And, to this day, the Alpine Ice Sports Centre is the rink he still cherishes.

“The quality of ice and everything is definitely a little different than out here. But, for me, it’s kind of my home rink, that’s where I grew up playing,” Ratcliffe said. “It makes it special and exciting when you come over here and you’re able to play in front of fans like these in Danbury.”

Hockey is a sport that didn’t take long for Ratcliffe to embrace. His initial excitement for the game left him wanting to grow as a player and build a long-lasting relationship with it.

“I pretty much just tried it out and initially played street hockey back home and then I bugged my parents to find inline or ice,” Ratcliffe said. “And it turned out there was an ice rink 10 minutes from my house and they took me to one of those learn-to-skate programs. And, since then, it’s been all I’ve wanted to do.”

From the moment the 5-foot-11 forward took the ice, Ratcliffe had no other sport to obsess over. It was just two years later when he first saw an NHL game in person on vacation in western Canada — an experience he would never forget.

Even as a first-time live spectator joined by family, it reminded him of what he was already devoted to achieving professionally many years later.

“We went to a Canucks game, it was my first one,” Ratcliffe said. “I remember just having seen it on TV and being there in person, it was super exciting. When you’re a kid growing up, that’s obviously the ultimate goal for everyone, to play in the NHL. That was really exciting to see but, obviously, it’s tough to get there. I was just blown away seeing all those players live and how good they are, and the building and the fans.”

As much as Ratcliffe connected with hockey in Canada, taking in how an NHL team played wasn’t at the forefront of his mind in the following years. Canterbury is in a region of the world where hockey has drawn less amateur interest, leading him to identify other ways to build his hockey career.

His adventure to reach new heights in the sport he’d built his life around was just beginning.

“[Development in New Zealand] is on a much smaller scale,” Ratcliffe said. “We did have pee-wee, Bantam, and midgets, and they’re just the same thing. But there are a lot less players and competition. For me, I always tried to skate as much as I could. I tried to skate with every team and get as much ice time as I could and work on stickhandling and shooting pucks in my driveway. It’s probably not too different from most kids over here but, at the same time, quite a bit different because hockey’s very much a minority sport in New Zealand. Obviously, there are a lot of other sports, rugby, and soccer, that are more popular.”

At 14, Ratcliffe left New Zealand for a school just outside of Ottawa as a high schooler with hopes of further developing as a student-athlete to receive a college scholarship. The experience provided him additional ice time and coaching resources.

Ratcliffe’s decision to assimilate to a new region thousands of miles from where he first fell in love with hockey paid off. A chance to play junior hockey became available, and with it, another adjustment to a different country, this time in Foxboro, Mass., to develop in the United States Premier Hockey League.

Despite college scholarships presenting competition to make rosters each season, Ratcliffe didn’t have to travel far to transition from junior hockey to playing at Westfield State (MASCAC), where Division III hockey helped establish the next point in his career for three seasons from 2018–2022.

From when Ratcliffe took advantage of the scholarship he had hoped to pursue from when he began playing, his dedication to working with different coaches uncovered a plan for him to play professionally. Ratcliffe’s relocating made his dream to compete at a high level seem more attainable.

“When he came to Westfield State, the first thing was he had to get faster and stronger,” Westfield State coach Bob Miele said. “In our league, it comes down to puck battles and having a certain level of speed. He always had the talent but obviously that improved, his hand and shot, and his ability as a skater. He certainly matured and got faster and stronger from training and lifting weights.”

As Ratcliffe turned in 30 goals and 32 assists across three seasons as a collegian, individuals in professional hockey began to take notice of his potential and attributes. There was one who knew the ethos of Danbury hockey, coached Ratcliffe as a first-year professional in 2022 and, later that season, provided him the opportunity to play for the franchise that former coach Billy McCreary had developed into an FPHL contender.

“I remember recruiting Ratcliffe,” McCreary said. “He played for another former Danbury player in Nick Niedert. I remember talking to Nick, who was his coach at the time. Nick informed me about the type of player that he was and the type of person he was. He let me know Ratcliffe’s a highly offensive player, he’s a tremendous teammate, a tremendous person. He’s willing to do anything and play whatever kind of role he has to. But Nick also told me Ratcliffe was waiting to come out of his shell. And that’s what happened for Ratcliffe. He got to us and kind of found his way throughout the regular season, and then in the last few games of the regular season and in the playoffs he just popped.”

In his first 19 games in Danbury in 2023, Ratcliffe didn’t waste time contributing to the Hat Tricks’ Commissioner’s Cup championship run. Registering six goals and seven assists, including four goals in the finals against Carolina, Ratcliffe soon learned what the Hat Tricks require of forwards to win consistently in the FPHL.

“He was one of top two or three forwards in that championship run we had, and he really finds a way to be opportunistic at the right times,” McCreary said. “It’s been great to see him carry on that tradition in Danbury and he’s a tremendous piece to that puzzle, not only the years that I was there but obviously here current day.”

Added Ratcliffe, “That was my first professional season, my first professional playoffs. In any league, the competition and intensity ramp up in the playoffs. It was the same thing here. Everyone was on another level, and we just had that common goal [of winning a championship], so everyone was willing to do anything — block any shot, take any hit, sacrifice for each other. That kind of bond we had made it easy to do all those things and put your body on the line for everyone else. With the fans and everything, it was really an unbelievable experience.”

Putting his body on the line for everyone this season has established Ratcliffe as a top-line forward as Danbury tries to capture the second seed in the Commissioner’s Cup playoffs.

With the chance to win a cup for the second time in three years, Ratcliffe’s contributed to one of the FPHL’s most productive lines while, similarly to its cup season, Danbury has played with drive, winning 21 of its last 28 games and sparking motivation about dominating the playoffs.

“We’re starting to have that similar feeling with this group,” Ratcliffe said. “You don’t want to dwell too much on the past itself, but at the same time, those memories motivate you to keep going this year. Obviously, we’ve only got maybe six or seven guys that were on that original team, so you really want to create that [atmosphere] with the new guys here and go through that process again with them so you have those memories with them. So, we’re just trying to focus on taking one game at a time right now and picking up as many points as we can, put ourselves in the best spot going into playoffs.”

Ratcliffe’s professional career has flourished in Danbury with a hockey operations staff devoted to preparing players for higher levels of hockey and leading teams to success. And because McCreary, now in his first season as assistant coach of the Kalamazoo Wings in the ECHL, and the rest of the staff have guided former Danbury players to teams in the SPHL and ECHL, Ratcliffe benefitted from the support he received.

“You could see him getting a little bit more comfortable with the league and the game,” McCreary said. “He has certainly developed that offensive potency that has carried over to the Federal Prospects Hockey League in Danbury but in the Australian League as well, winning a championship there and being a key driver to his team’s success there as much as he is here.”

The consistent opportunity Ratcliffe has had to help the Hat Tricks win hasn’t come without reflecting on the unique experiences from the risk he took many years ago.

“It is pretty crazy to look back now and see how long it’s kind of been since I left home to come over here,” Ratcliffe said. “I’m definitely proud of everything that’s unfolded so far, there’s still more to come. Getting the chance to play in these different countries, different leagues and cities and everything has been more than I could imagine. I’m just trying to enjoy every second of it while I can.”

Added Miele, “I would give him the credit of improving. I would tell him what he needed to do to improve, and he would do it. He was a talented kid in our program, and I would give him a little bit of room to be creative. He was a good teammate and took care of defense … It’s one of those players you love to have on your team.”

Ahead of Danbury’s final weekend of the regular season, Ratcliffe has totaled a single-season-high 52 points and is tied for the team-high in assists with 37. But for him, his individual success hardly compares to what he and Danbury set out to do this postseason.

“I think the sky is the limit for him because he’s going to keep working and keep getting better, whatever he wants to do and put his mind to,” Miele said. “He was willing to fight for his teammates as he would in the pros which says a lot about him at that level.”