Recap: London skates to Tuesday victory in Kitchener
Kitchener, Ont. – London used a four-goal start to jump out to an early lead en-route to a 7-3 victory over the Rangers in front of 6,108 fans Tuesday night. Matthew Sop, Reid Valade and Francesco Pinelli scored for Kitchener. Marcus Vandenberg made 24 saves on 30 London shots. Ryan Winterton recorded a three-point night and Easton Cowan scored twice for London.
A fortuitous bounce for the Knights opened the scoring midway through the first period. A Rangers defenceman fell at the London blueline failing to keep the puck in the zone which sent London on a 2-on-1 break. Easton Cowan held the puck all the way and fired a shot far side past the blocker of Marcus Vandenberg at 9:13. London then added a second goal to double their lead at 5:17. With the man advantage, the Knights worked the puck to the high slot for a shot which was stopped, but the rebound fell to the stick of Ryan Humphrey alone in the crease to tap the puck across the line.
Through 20 minutes of play the Knights held a 2-0 advantage and shots favoured the Knights 9-4.
It was more from the Knights in the middle frame adding three more goals. 1:21 into the second period, a turnover from Kitchener on a failed drop-pass sent London on another odd-man rush. Ryan Winterton (Seattle Kraken) drove hard to the net getting around his man and dropped the puck back to Logan Mailloux to snap the puck under the bar. Then at 10:30, George Diaco made it 4-0 as he curled around from the left circle into the slot and ripped a shot into the top right corner.
Kitchener tried to claw back making it a 4-1 game at 11:51. A forced turnover by Adrian Misaljevic and Carson Rehkopf worked the puck across the ice to Matthew Sop who picked the bottom right corner hitting double digits with his 10th goal of the season. Shortly after, London countered at 14:43 with their second power-play goal of the game on a one-timer by Ryan Winterton, setup by Logan Mailloux.
Through 40 minutes of play London had a 5-1 lead and shots favoured the Knights 21-20.
For the second consecutive period, London scored within the first two minutes of the period. This time at 1:39, Landon Sim scored London’s sixth goal of the game squeezing a shot through the body of Marcus Vandenberg.
Then, while shorthanded, Reid Valade was sprung for a breakaway and was tripped. Kitchener was awarded a penalty shot. Valade came in on Zach Bowen faking to his backhand and sliding the puck with his forehand around the sprawling netminder. London led 6-2 with 16 minutes to play in the third period. Kitchener cut the lead in half with a power-play goal at 10:48 through captain Francesco Pinelli (Los Angeles Kings) scoring his 22nd goal of the year.
That was a close as Kitchener would come as with 1:11 left to play London slotted home an empty net goal with Cowan scoring his second of the game making it a 7-3 final.
Shots in the game favoured the Knights 31-30. Kitchener finished the game 1-for-6 on the power-play and 3-for-5 on the penalty kill. All three stars of the game were awarded to members of the London Knights.
Next Up:
The OHL leading Ottawa 67’s visit Kitchener this Friday for the only time this season. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. at The Aud and great seats are still available here.
Photo Credit: Tiffany Luke / Kitchener Rangers
For inquiries, contact:
Dominic Hennig
Senior Director, Broadcasting, Communications & Hockey Operations
Kitchener Rangers Hockey Club
519-497-9342
[email protected]
