Frontenacs struggle in the second period, lose 4-2 to the Kitchener Rangers
Kingston, ON – After a tough 6-3 loss the previous night in Barrie, the Kingston Frontenacs had to quickly shift their attention to the Kitchener Rangers Friday night on home ice. The Frontenacs go from facing the hottest team in the OHL to the second hottest team, as the Rangers are 8-1-1-0 in their last ten games.
The Fronts turned to Matt Minchak in the crease as Gavin Betts played the previous night in Barrie; but Minchak also has a 31 save win against the Rangers already on the season. Kingston went into Kitchener and the notoriously tough to play in Kitchener Memorial Auditorium and squeaked out a 3-2 win thanks in large part to the performance of Minchak. Not even a minute into the game, Minchak was called upon to make a ten-bell save as the Rangers had an early 2-on-1 break. Minchak stopped the first shot and sprawled across the crease to make the second stop; showing he was dialed in early.
Perhaps with bus legs after getting back into Kingston around 2AM, the Frontenacs shook the slow start and found their footing as they took it to Kitchener in the second half of the opening frame, but Jason Schaubel stood tall with both goalies remaining perfect after the opening twenty minutes of action.
The second period began with the same energy from the Kitchener Rangers, as they were able to beat Minchak to open the scoring just over six minutes into the frame. Christian Humphreys broke the deadlock after deflecting a Jack Pridham point shot to finally beat Minchak.
After seeing the puck go in, the Rangers broke open the floodgates as they would add three more goals before the end of the second. Jack Pridham, Cameron Arquette and Gabriel Chiarot all found the back of the net to give Kitchener a 4-0 advantage heading into the room.
Kingston would break Jason Schaubel’s shutout bid just before the halfway point of the third as Alex Misiak continued his hot streak since joining the black and gold. On their first power play of the night, Misiak fired a one-timer by Schaubel just 17 seconds into the man advantage to make it 4-1. Adam Kelly found the back of the net for his first of the year, but it was too little too late for the Frontenacs as they would drop Friday’s matchup with the Rangers in a 4-2 final.
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