Rehkopf’s Hat-Trick Propels Rangers to 6-2 Victory Sunday
October 16, 2022 – Ontario Hockey League (OHL) – Kitchener Rangers News Release
Kitchener, Ont. – The shorthanded Kitchener Rangers posted an impressive 6-2 victory over the visiting Flint Firebirds Sunday afternoon in front 5,455 fans at The Aud. Carson Rehkopf recorded a hat trick, Joseph Serpa tallied two goals and one assist, Hunter Brzustewics had three assists and Marco Costantini made 39 saves in the Blueshirts’ first victory of the season.
The Firebirds opened the scoring at 11:46 of the opening frame when Brennan Othmann (New York Rangers) deflected in a shot by Dmitry Kuzmin (Winnipeg Jets) from the left circle. It was the first and final lead of the game for Flint.
Joseph Serpa scored his first of two on the afternoon at 14:59 after receiving a pass in the slot from the right-wall from Reid Valade. Serpa scored far-side past the Flint netminder’s blocker to tie the contest.
Then, 1:09 later, Tomas Hamara (Ottawa Senators) made a skilled no-look-pass to Carson Rehkopf at the right circle who recorded his first-of-three on a one-timer shortside while on the power-play to earn the Rangers the lead. Hamara and Hunter Brzustewicz were credited with the assists.
Flint would score one more time on a tic-tac-toe passing play, also while on the power-play. From the right side, Othmann dished a pass to Riley Piercey who slid the puck over to Gavin Hayes (Chicago Blackhawks) at the left side of the goal. Hayes connected for his third of the season at 17:52. The game was tied 2-2 afer 20 minutes and Flint led in shots 15-9
From there, Kitchener scored four-consecutive goals for the win. Rehkopf recorded his second of the night just 1:32 into the middle frame picking up a loose puck on the left-wing wall, walking in and scoring far-side. Then, Serpa finished off a skilled highlight-reel goal at 8:10 to earn the Rangers a 4-2 lead. Brzustewicz faked a shot, held on with patience and walked around a Flint defender before finding Valade in the slot. Valade made a skilled one-touch pass to Serpa in the slot who fired the puck past the Flint netminder.
Then, on an odd-man rush, Joseph Serpa from the right wall forced a 2-on-0 with Mitchell Martin. Serpa fed a pass to Martin who buried blocker-side to increase the Rangers’ lead to three, 5-2 after two periods.
Finally, in similar fashion, Hamara made another no-look pass from the point while feeding Rehkopf who one-timed a shot short-side while on the power-play at 6:50 of the third period to earn Kitchener a 6-2 victory.
Final shots were 41-34 Flint. Kitchener led in the face-off circle 30-28. The Rangers were 2-for-5 on the power-play and 3-for-4 on the penalty-kill. The three stars of the game all belonged to the Kitchener Rangers. Carson Rehkopf was awarded the game’s first star with a hat-trick performance, Joseph Serpa was the games second star with two goals and one assist, and the third star was Marco Constantini who made 39 stops in the win
Next Up:
The Rangers are back at The Aud this Friday October 21st when the club hosts the Sudbury Wolves for their third and final home game of their mini three-game home stint. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $21 for children and $25 for adults and can be purchased online now.
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