Preview: Kitchener hosts London Tuesday at The Aud
Kitchener, Ont. – Fresh off a victory Sunday in Saginaw, the Kitchener Rangers will turn their focus to their Midwest Division rivals, the London Knights. Tuesday’s matchup is the second of six meetings between these two clubs with Kitchener trying to even up the season series at one. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium and great seats are still available here.
Notable Links:
- Tickets: Buy Online | (519) 578-1570
- TV: Rogers TV, cable 20 (Kitchener)
- TV: Rogers TV, cable 13 (London)
- TV: Super Sports Pack, cable 466 (Ontario)
- Video Stream: OHL Live on CHL TV
- Radio: CityNews 570 AM CKGL
- Live Stats
- Live Tweets
- Game Video Preview
- Media Notes Packet
- Lines
- Digital East Avenue Blue Magazine
Promotions:
Kitchener will honour three members that participated in the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship this season as Rangers’ Tomáš Hamara won Silver with Czechia and Filip Mešár competed with Slovakia. Additionally, London’s Bob Martin was a member of Canada’s staff who won Gold at the tournament.
The Rangers are also partnering with the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region (SASC). SASC supports survivors of sexual violence by listening, facilitating healing, and celebrating resiliency. Using an anti-racist, intersectional feminist approach, SASC works to transform systems which promote gender-based violence. They are also the Rangers partner for the OHL ONSIDE program, which has been specifically designed for OHL players and team staff aimed at increasing the understanding and awareness of the player’s responsibility to demonstrate respect for women through their actions and words.
Ranger Milestones:
A trio of Rangers reached milestone marks in their OHL careers over the weekend. Danny Zhilkin (Winnipeg Jets) recorded his 100-th career point in the OHL with a goal against Saginaw on Sunday evening. Zhilkin scored Kitchener’s third goal of the game, which at the time, gave them their second lead of the game and they wouldn’t look back from there.
A pair of Rangers suited up for their 100th-career regular season game. Carson Rehkopf and Roman Schmidt (Tampa Bay Lighting) reached the milestone together and both dressed for all 100 games in the jersey of the East Avenue Blue.
Head-to-Head:
In the last three seasons, the Rangers have a 6-17-0-0 overall record and a 3-9-0-0 record at The Aud. However most recently, Kitchener defeated the London Knights in round one of the 2022 OHL playoffs as the seven seed by overcoming a 3-2 series deficit winning 5-3 at The Aud and 4-3 in overtime in London to move onto the second round.
This is the second of six matchups between these two bitter rivals. Last season was Kitchener’s best showing against London as well going 4-6-0-0 overall and 2-3-0-0 at The Aud. Kitchener lost the first three matchups at home but finished the year strong winning the last two. This season, Kitchener lost the first meeting between these clubs on Nov. 25 by a score of 4-0.
Kitchener improved their power-play percentage in their last game against Saginaw scoring two power-play goals on five opportunities. Kitchener now ranks fifth overall in league power-play percentage at 23.7% and an even better record on home ice at 26.3%. London owned the league’s third best power-play percentage when these teams met earlier this year, but now rank 10th converting on 21.4% of their opportunities. That percentage drops to 17.5% on the road. On the other side of special teams play, Kitchener also has an impressive record ranking fourth in the league killing off penalties at an 80.8% clip. London enters play with a similar penalty kill record with an 80.1% success rate and even better 81.7% on the road.
Kitchener most recently snapped a seven-game slide getting back in the win column with a 4-3 victory against the Spirit in Saginaw Sunday. The Rangers are now 3-5-2-0 in their last 10 games. London has dropped their last three games. Prior to that, the Knights were on a nine-game win streak. In their last 10 games they have a 7-3-0-0 record.
Scouting the Rangers:
Hunter Brzustewicz recorded another two power-play assists in Kitchener’s win over Saginaw giving him 17 on the season. That is good for the third highest total in the OHL. Brzustewicz is 15th-amongst all skaters in the league for assists with 29 and fourth amongst all defencemen. His 32 points (3G 29A) is good for 7th-most points by a defenceman in the league.
Marcus Vandenberg has stepped up in a big way ranking sixth in save percentage at .913 through 12 games this season and has a sub three goals against average at 2.87. His efforts on Sunday evening helped earn Kitchener a victory making 33 stops on 36 shots.
The offence continues to be driven by the efforts of Carson Rehkopf and Francesco Arcuri (Dallas Stars). Rehkopf and Arcuri share the second highest tally in power-play goals with 13 and Arcuri is third in goals in the OHL this season with 27. Arcuri has the lead in points on the Rangers roster with 46 points (27G 19A) in 39 games this season.
Mitchell Martin scored his first goal for Kitchener since his return from a wrist injury suffered earlier in the year. Martin now has 16 points (8G 8A) through 15 games this season. He joins Francesco Arcuri, Filip Mešár (Montréal Canadiens), Francesco Pinelli (Los Angeles Kings), and Danny Zhilkin (Winnipeg Jets) as the six Rangers skaters averaging a point or more per game this season.
Francesco Arcuri (Dallas Stars), Tomáš Hamara (Ottawa Senators), Filip Mešár (Montréal Canadiens), Francesco Pinelli (Los Angeles Kings), Roman Schmidt (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Danny Zhilkin are six Kitchener skaters that are both drafted, and signed, by their NHL clubs respectively.
Scouting the Knights:
The Knights are led by Sean McGurn who has totaled 48 points (17G 31A) in 38 games this season. His 48 points is the ninth highest total in the league by all skaters this season. Teammate George Diaco is right behind him with 46 points (18G 28A) through 37 games.
London has two defencemen tied with 26 points helping to generate offence for the Knights. Logan Mailloux (Montréal Canadiens) with 12 goals and 14 assists and Oliver Bonk with 9 goals and 17 assists. Mailloux has the fourth highest total for goals by defencemen on the year
Goaltender Brett Brochu is putting together another great season for the London Knights. He ranks fourth amongst all goalies with 2.76 goals against average and a 0.903 save percentage on the year. He also has the third most wins by a goalie this year with 18 in 29 games played.
Jackson Edward (BOS), Isaiah George (NYI), Logan Mailloux (MTL), Max McCue (SJ), Landon Sim (STL), and Ryan Winterton (SEA) are the six Saginaw skaters that are drafted by their NHL clubs respectively.
Broadcast Coverage:
Tuesday night’s contest will be televised live throughout Kitchener and the Waterloo Region on Rogers TV, cable channel 20, as well as throughout London on Rogers TV, cable channel 13. In addition, the contest can be watched across the province of Ontario on the Super Sports Pack on channel 466 for cable subscribers. Jason Hagholm (play-by-play), Dan Polischuk (colour commentary) and Sean Furfaro (host) will call the game on television.
The game will be streamed live online in a web browser at OHLLive.com, and on the CHL App for mobile devices including smart TV’s such as including Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire.
Additionally, fans can listen to the game on the radio on CityNews 570 AM CKGL. Mike Farwell (play-by-play) and Chris Pope (colour commentary) will call the game on the radio. Fans can tune in to the radio pregame show 30 minutes prior to puck drop and can be a part of the broadcast with extended postgame shows as Farwell takes phone calls from Rangers Nation after all home games at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. Fans can call 519-570-2545 during the radio postgame shows to talk Rangers Hockey.
For more information on Kitchener Rangers broadcast coverage, click here.
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.
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]
