RANGERS EDGE KNIGHTS 3-2
There are nights where it feels as though someone has left a pane of plexi-glass blocking the opposition net. Tuesday in Kitchener felt like that for the London Knights as they fell 3-2 to the Rangers.
London battled back from a 3-0 deficit and nearly tied it with less than 30 seconds left as a shot hit the post.
Kitchener got the early jump in the game and went ahead 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Adam Mascherin and Gustaf Franzen as they outshot London 12-4.
London’s best chance in the opening 20 minutes came on a 2-on-oh between Eric Henderson and Jack Hidi. As a puck deflected down the ice, Henderson raced after it and caught up to the puck on the right side of the Ranger end as Hidi raced for the front of the net. Henderson flipped the puck toward Hidi, but it hit off the toe of his stick.
The Knights came out with a whole lot of jump in the second period and came close to scoring early, courtesy of a Kole Sherwood shot that was stopped by Kitchener goalie, Dawson Carty. Not long after that a puck found Doug Blaisdell at the left point of the London end and he wristed it through a set of legs and over the glove of Burke for a 3-0 Kitchener lead.
Burke made two massive saves later in the period as he stopped Franzen on a breakaway and then stopped him again after Franzen was awarded a penalty shot on the play.
The Knights’ offense was stopped on a four minute power play in the middle of the second period, but that seemed to give London some jump and late in the period they managed to beat Carty. Max Jones made a nice move on the left side of the Ranger end and got the puck in front where Owen MacDonald fought off a Kitchener defender and got a second whack over the goal line and it was 3-1 after 40 minutes.
Hidi brought London to within a goal at 6:41 of period three as he converted a Robert Thomas feed for his second goal of the year.
With just under two minutes left, the Knights got Burke to the bench and with less than 30 seconds left they got the puck to the front of the Kitchener net. In a wild scramble, Max Jones managed to make contact and knocked the puck squarely off the post and the Rangers were able to clear.
The teams stayed a goal apart and just as the Knights were able to hang on and win in London on December 16th, the Rangers survived on their home ice.
Tyler Parsons was scheduled to start the game for London, but left during warm-up and did not return. Burke ended the game with 21 saves. Parsons is listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury.
London will begin the second half of their schedule as they close out the calendar year at home to the Sarnia Sting on Thursday at 4 PM at Budweiser Gardens. Broadcast time on NewsTalk 1290 is 3:30.
