Final: Rangers 4, Colts 6
Kitchener, ON: The Rangers (38-16-5-2) played a tight contest against the Barrie Colts (28-27-4-2) but ended up falling 6-4.
Francesco Pinelli led the way with three assists. Goalscorers for the Rangers were Declan McDonnell, Mike Petizian, Arber Xhekaj, and Jonathan Yantsis.
Lucas Pfeil made 27 saves in the loss.
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The Blueshirts opened up the scoring on Friday night while on the power-play. Francesco Pinelli passed the puck to Serron Noel behind the net who found Declan McDonnell (20) in front. The right-winger fired a shot past Jet Greaves to make it 1-0 at 5:00.
With 1:11 left in the first period, the Colts got the equalizer. Tyson Foerster broke into the Rangers defensive zone and passed into the centre of the ice to a streaking Evan Vierling (14) who beat his defenseman and went over the blocker-side shoulder of Lucas Pfeil to tie it up 1-1.
Shots after the first period were 10-7 in favour of the Rangers.
The Colts scored at 1:05 of the second period when a defensive zone turnover led to a long pass to mid-ice for Aiden Brown (20) who got himself on a breakaway and scored five-hole to make it 2-1.
Minutes later, at 2:34, the Colts extended their lead when a shot from distance by couldn’t be corralled by Pfeil and Ethan Cardwell (22) tapped in the loose puck from the side of the crease and it was 3-1.
The Rangers got one back at 4:41 when Pinelli passed to Mike Petizian (21) who fired a shot on net from the slot that was blocked before he collected his own rebound and made good on the second chance to make it 3-2.
Donovan Sebrango also earned an assist on the goal.
At 8:15, during four-on-four play, a shot on net by Pinelli resulted in a rebound the went out to Arber Xhekaj (6) who scored to tie it up 3-3.
The second assist went to Axel Bergkvist.
Barrie regained the lead at 18:59 when a shot from the face-off dot by Anthony Tabak (11) beat Pfeil glove-side and it was 4-3.
Shots after 40 minutes of hockey were 24-21 for the Colts.
Liam Hawel took a tripping penalty at 9:18 and, on the ensuing power-play, at 9:31, Nathan Allensen made a backhand pass cross-ice to Tyson Foerster (35) who clapped a one-timer past Pfeil to extend the Colts lead to two, 5-3.
At 16:57, the Rangers evened it up during some four-on-four play. A shot on net by Bergkvist was tipped in by Jonathan Yantsis (38) and that made it 5-4.
Riley Damiani also earned an assist on the goal.
At 18:51, Foerster (15) picked up his second goal of the game on an empty Rangers net to seal it for the Colts, 6-4.
Final shots on goal were 33-31 for Barrie.
The next Rangers home game is Friday March 13th at 7:30 pm versus the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
Their next road game is Sunday March 8th at 2:05 pm versus the Windsor Spitfires. That game will broadcast nationally on Sportsnet.
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