Final: Rangers 5, IceDogs 2
Kitchener, ON: The Rangers (23-11-3-2) began another three-game weekend against the IceDogs (15-18-4-1). This time, the Blueshirts came out with the win, 5-2.
Jonathan Yantsis, Joseph Serpa, Francesco Pinelli, Reid Valade, and Mike Petizian were all goalscorers on the night.
Jacob Ingham stopped 28 in the win to improve to 19-4-2-1 on the season.
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The Rangers opened up the scoring at 12:59 of the first period. Reid Valade threw it in front of the net to Jonathan Yantsis (28) who skated around the outside pad of Christian Sbaraglia and slid it in to make it 1-0.
Justin MacPherson also earned an assist on the goal.
At 16:18, MacPherson got himself involved on another goal. He found Joseph Serpa (2) in the faceoff circle and the centreman wristed one high, blocker-side to make it 2-0.
Jesse Fishman was the second assist on the goal.
After 20 minutes, the Rangers led in shots 15-6.
Kitchener extended their lead at 14:16. Simon Motew passed up ice to Francesco Pinelli (13) who went east-west across the slot and fired a shot low and away past Sbaraglia to make it 3-0.
Niagara got one back at 16:51 when Ivan Lodnia (20) broke into the Rangers zone and went short-side under the glove of Jacob Ingham to make it 3-1.
At the end of the second period, shots were 28-18 for the Rangers.
The third period started with an upped tempo. At 1:07, Reid Valade (13) skated into the offensive zone with a full head of steam. As he approached the net he raised the puck over the blocker of Sbaraglia and make it 4-1.
Riley Damiani and Yantsis both picked up assists on the goal.
Just 18-seconds later, Niagara got one back when a shot by Cameron Snow (4) beat Ingham to cut the Rangers lead in half, 4-2.
Kitchener closed it out at 18:41 when Mike Petizian scored an unassisted goal on an empty IceDogs net to make it 5-2.
Final shots on goal were 38-30 in favour of the Rangers.
The next Rangers home game is on Friday, January 12 at 2:00 pm versus the Windsor Spitfires. The next road game for the Rangers is on Saturday, January 11 at 7:30 pm versus the Barrie Colts.
Tickets are available for all regular-season home games! Purchase yours in-person at The Aud or Centre in the Square Box Office, by phone (519) 578-1570 or 1-800-265-8977, or online.
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