Final: Rangers 5, Greyhounds 4
Sault Ste. Marie, ON: The Rangers (30-12-5-2) staged a come from behind win against the Greyhounds (23-25-2-0) on Wednesday night, 5-4.
A three-goal second period by the Rangers was the catalyst in a victory that saw five different Rangers score: McDonnell, Hawel, Pinelli, Yantsis, and Valade.
Jacob Ingham stopped 39 to pick up his 24th win of the year.
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The Greyhounds opened up the scoring at 4:31 when an attempt to send a puck cross-ice by Zack Trott (12) deflected off the stick of a Rangers defender and went past Jacob Ingham for an early 1-0 lead.
At 12:36, Greg Meireles took a cross-checking penalty and on the ensuing Greyhounds power-play, a shot on net by Trott was tipped in by Cole MacKay (22) to make it 2-0.
Matthew Halushak took down Mike Petizian at 14:35 and got called for interference. On the power-play, the Rangers first of the night, a shot by Greg Meireles was redirected by Declan McDonnell (12) past Nick Malik to bring the Rangers within a goal at 2-1.
Michael Vukojevic also earned an assist on the goal.
At 18:07, Tanner Dickinson took a high-sticking penalty to give the Rangers their second power-play of the night.
Seconds later, at 18:21, Cole MacKay (23) was on a partial break, went hard to the net and put the puck past Ingham as the Rangers goaltender fell into the back of his net. That made it 3-1.
After 20 minutes of play, the Greyhounds led in shots, 14-10.
Just 16-seconds into the second period, Damiani passed to Liam Hawel (13) in the slot and Hawel one-timed it past Malik to make it 3-2.
Arber Xhekaj took a roughing penalty at 7:58 of the second period. On the power-play,at 8:51, Robert Calisti and Trott fed Rory Kerins (24) far-side and the centreman scored on a wide-open net to restore the Greyhounds’ two-goal advantage, 4-2.
At 9:06, the Rangers got on the board again. This time, a pass towards the front of the net by Michael Vukojevic was tipped-in by Francesco Pinelli (15) and it was 4-3.
Kitchener evened the score at 11:38 when a backdoor pass by Mike Petizian to Jonathan Yantsis (33) resulted in an easy tip-in goal to make it 4-4.
After two periods of play, the Greyhounds continued to lead in shots, 30-21.
The Rangers took their first lead of the night at 12:07 when Reid Valade (17) played give-and-go with Petizian. The Caledon, ON native went forehand to backhand and lifted it high on Malik to make it 5-4, and that’s how the game would end.
Final shots on goal were 43-31 in favour of the Greyhounds.
The next Rangers home game is on Friday, February 7 at 7:30 pm versus the Mississauga Steelheads. The next road game for the Rangers is on Sunday, February 9 at 4:05 pm versus the Sarnia Sting.
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