Final: Rangers 6, Knights 8
Kitchener, ON: The London Knights were in town on Friday night to play the Rangers at The Aud. The back-and-forth affair saw a total of 14 goals and 24 penalties. The Knights were up 7-6 going into the latter half of the third before sealing the deal on an empty-netter to win 8-6.
Donovan Sebrango had two goals, Joseph Garreffa had a goal and three assists, and Greg Meireles had three assists to extend his point streak to 13 games.
Lucas Pfeil stopped 24 of 31 in the loss.
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FULL GAME REPORT
The Knights were the first to strike during the Midwest division battle. On a penalty kill, Liam Foudy found himself on a breakaway and slid his 33rd goal fo the season past Lucas Pfeil to make the score 1-0 at 6:58.
At 8:13 Mike Petizian took an interference penalty to give London their first powerplay of the night. On the ensuing powerplay, at 8:20, Alex Regula scored his 9th of the season to make it 2-0 for the visitors.
Joseph Garreffa single-handedly got the Rangers back into the game at 13:54 when he deked around Knights defenders and scored his 26th of the season to cut the deficit in half, 2-1.
Josh Nelson took a slashing penalty at 14:38 that produced a number of high-quality chances for the Rangers, including a diving save by Joseph Raaymakers, Kitchener turned it over at their blueline for the second time and London scored their second shorthanded goal, this time by Alex Formenton, to make it 3-1.
It was at 18:04 that the Knights extended their lead to three when some nifty passing by Formenton and Nathan Dunkley found Kevin Hancock wide-open on Pfeil’s right side and the centreman easily netted his 50th goal of the season and it was 4-1.
At the end of the first period, the Rangers were outshooting the Knights 15-9.
The Rangers came out with heavy momentum to start the second period and at 1:13, off a cross-ice pass from Garreffa, Donovan Sebrango sniped his sixth goal over the glove-hand of Raaymakers to cut the Knights lead in half, 4-2.
Reid Valade also earned an assist on the goal.
Sebrango wasn’t done there. This time, Greg Meireles and Jonathan Yantsis found the rookie defenseman on Raaymakers left-side and number 37 went top corner again to make it 4-3 at 7:31.
The assist by Meireles extended his point streak to 13 games.
At 9:08, Jonathan Yantsis netted his 42nd goal of the season from assists by Meireles and Damiani and just like that, it three unanswered goals by the Rangers to tie it up 4-4.
Between 12:19 and 14:30, Bouchard, Adam Boqvist, and Dunkley scored for the Knights to quickly restore their three-goal advantage and make it 7-4 London going into the third period.
The Rangers were outshot through 40-minutes, 24-23.
Kitchener came storming out of the dressing for the third period and that resulted in two quick goals for the home team. The first goal was by Rickard Hugg, his 30th, and the second was by Ryan Stepien, his eighth and just like that, it was 7-6.
With three seconds left in the game, Foudy scored his second to seal it for the green and white, 8-6.
The Rangers outshot the Knights 33-32.
The Rangers next home game is on Sunday, March 3 at 2:00 pm vs the Guelph Storm. The next road game for Kitchener is on Wednesday, March 6 at 7:00 pm versus the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Tickets still available for all regular season home games. Purchase yours in person at the Activa Box Office 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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