Back-and-Forth Affair Goes the Way of the Attack Saturday
October 1, 2022 – Ontario Hockey League (OHL) – Kitchener Rangers News Release
Owen Sound, Ont. – The Rangers dropped a hard-fought game to the Owen Sound Attack in the club’s first road game of the season Saturday night. Kitchener started strong jumping ahead 2-0 after 20 minutes of play and showed fight battling back mid-way through the third period to tie the game 3-3, but Owen Sound pulled out the eventual 4-3 victory.
Kitchener hit the ground running drawing first blood in tonight’s contest. On the Blueshirts’ first power-play of the game, forward Carson Rehkopf netted his first goal of the season at 7:15 of the opening frame. Joseph Serpa fed a pass to Hunter Brzustewicz at the point who then faked a one-timer and found Rehkopf at the top of the left circle where he fired a wrist-shot past a screen, top-shelf over the glove of the Attack goaltender. Just over a minute later at the 8:49 mark, Matthew Sop doubled Kitchener’s lead. Skating with the puck up the left-hand side, Sop curled the puck around the outstretched stick of the Attack defender and snapped it past the glove of goalie Nick Chenard.
Owen Sound responded with a goal of their own at 14:37 in the period to cut the lead in half. Ethan Burroughs deflected down a point shot from defenceman Kaleb Lawrence (Los Angeles Kings) through the legs of a sliding Jackson Parsons. The period ended with shots favouring the Rangers 12-8 and Kitchener leading 2-1.
Owen Sound capitalized on their second stint with the man-advantage. Cedrick Guindon (Montreal Canadiens) scored his first of the season at the 15:07 mark of the middle frame knocking in a loose puck at the side of the goal, just below the circle. Jackson Parsons made his best efforts in trying to close the angle down, but the puck trickled between his pad and the post. Owen Sound’s equalizer would be the only goal of the period. The shots after 40 minutes still favoured the Rangers 25-18 and the game was tied at 2-2.
Owen Sound’s third unanswered goal of the game opened the scoring in the third period giving them their first lead on the night. Forward Kaleb Lawrence (Los Angeles Kings) powered his way into Ranger’s territory and served the puck up to Sam Sedley in the slot who made no mistake corralling the puck and firing it over the glove of Jackson Parsons just under a minute into the final frame. Then, Kitchener equalized at 10:12 off a bouncing puck knocked in by Adam Zidlicky. Francesco Pinelli (Los Angeles Kings) had his shot deflected and saved off the toe of the Attack goalie, but the rebound deflected tothe stick of Zidlicky who converted into the empty net.
The Attack would take the lead back three minutes later at 13:15 on a similar looking goal. An unfortunate bounce after a stick save made by Jackson Parsons deflected off the leg of Reid Valade and was eventually pushed over the line by Deni Goure. Kitchener would pull their goalie for the extra attacker with 1:20 remaining and had an opportunity to tie the game, but Pinelli was denied on a cross-crease blocker stop by Nick Chenard who was great on the night making 36 stops.
The final shots favoured the Rangers 39-26. Kitchener finished 1-for-4 on the power-play and 2-for-3 on the penalty-kill. Simon Motew earned the game’s second star recording two assists.
Next up: The Rangers will stay on the road for game two of their early three-game road trip. Kitchener will face the Ottawa 67’s in the Nation’s Capital next Friday, October 7th at 7:00p.m. The game will be televised in Kitchener and the Waterloo Region on Rogers TV, cable channel 20, and will be broadcast on the radio on CityNews 570 AM CKGL.
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