Final: Rangers 2, Storm 1
Guelph, ON: In the Rangers (22-11-3-2) third game in the past three days, they defeated their Midwest Division rival, the Storm (22-10-1-4), 2-1, on the back of a 40 save performance by Jacob Ingham.
Mike Petizian scored his seventh of the season, while Francesco Pinelli netted his 12th. Liam Hawel picked up two assists in the win.
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It didn’t take long for the Rangers to get on the board. At 1:17 of the first period, a pass into the faceoff circle by Liam Hawel found Mike Petizian (7) who wired one past Owen Bennett to make it 1-0.
The period didn’t feature any more scoring despite the Storm taking three penalties in the first 20 minutes of play.
Kitchener outshot Guelph by 10, 18-8.
At 14:49 of the second period, Michael Vukojevic took a checking to the head penalty on a hit on Pavel Gogolev.
While on the powerplay, Gogolev passed to Keegan Stevenson (15) who uncorked a shot past Jacob Ingham on Guelph’s 14th shot of the period. That made it 1-1.
The second period would end with the Storm ahead in shots 28-26.
At 1:41 of the third period, one a three-on-one break into Guelph’s end, Hawel passed cross-ice to Francesco Pinelli (12) who went bar and in to retake the lead for the Rangers, 2-1.
Despite heavily outshooting the Rangers in the final two frames, the Storm couldn’t find a way to beat Ingham again and the Rangers would end up winning by a goal.
Final shots on goal were 41-32.
The next Rangers home game is on Friday, January 10 versus the Niagara IceDogs at 7:30 pm. The next road game for the Rangers is on Saturday, January 11 at 7:30 pm versus the Barrie Colts.
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