Final: Rangers 4, Steelheads 5 (OT)
Mississauga, ON: Despite the Rangers (28-11-5-2) jumping out to a 3-0 lead after the first period and leading 4-1 going into the third, the Steelheads (21-23-2-1) came back to win the game in overtime, 5-4.
Greg Meireles, Mike Petizian, Axel Bergkvist, and Donovan Sebrango were all goalscorers on the afternoon.
Jacob Ingham stopped 25 in the loss.
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Donovan Sebrango drew a hooking penalty at 6:41 of the first period. On the ensuing powerplay, Liam Hawel passed to Riley Damiani who wired a shot off the end board that went straight to Greg Meireles (23) who shot it into the back of the net to make it 1-0.
Kitchener extended their lead at 16:26 when Declan McDonnell and Mike Petizian played some give-and-go skating into the offensive end that resulted in a Petizian (14) tip of the puck past Kai Edmonds to make it 2-0.
Francesco Pinelli also picked up an assist on the goal.
Just over two minutes later, at 18:37, the Rangers found themselves on a 4-on-1 breaking into the Steelheads’ zone. The rush culminated in an Axel Bergkvist (5) goal that was assisted by Jonathan Yantsis and Pinelli to make it 3-0.
After 20 minutes, the Rangers led in shots 9-5.
Mississauga got on the board while shorthanded at 4:18 when Nicholas Canade (15) beat Jacob Ingham to cut the Kitchener lead to two, 3-1.
The Rangers restores their three-goal advantage when Donovan Sebrango (5) showed patience before uncorking a shot on Edmunds that hit him in the chest and went up, over, and into the net to make it 4-1.
The goal earned assists from Serron Noel and Hawel.
There would be no more scoring in the period. The Rangers led in shots after 40 minutes, 26-20.
The Steelheads opened up the third period scoring on a Ty Collins (10) goal through heavy traffic in front of Ingham to make it 4-2.
Just after the Rangers fifth powerplay expires, Cole Schwindt (20) came out of the box, received a pass, made a move around a Rangers defender, and went high, blocker-side to bring the Steelheads within a goal, 4-3.
With 49-seconds remaining and their net empty, Schwindt (21) received a cross-ice pass from Thomas Harley and buried it to even the game up on his second tally of the afternoon, 4-4.
At the end of regulation, the Rangers led in shots 37-29.
In overtime, a two-on-one for the Steelheads was capped off by Schwindt (22) who scored his natural hat trick to give the Steelheads the overtime win, 5-4.
Final shots on goal were 38-30.
The next Rangers home game is on Friday, January 31 at 7:30 pm versus the Owen Sound Attack. The next road game for the Rangers is on Saturday, February 1 at 7:00 pm versus the Flint Firebirds.
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