Minor Midget AAA Jr. Rangers in Waterloo Gold Puck Tournament
The KJR Minor Midget AAA team
showed very well in the Waterloo Gold Puck tournament this past weekend going
3-0-1 in round robin play and winning their division.
The Minor Midget AAA Jr. Rangers played 2 games
Friday and 2 games Saturday.
The Jr. Rangers faced Compuware in their first game and dominated the game from start to finish. The Ranger scored in the 1st minute and didn’t look back winning their opening game 7-0. Gianfranco Commisso led the way with 3 goals.
Their 2nd game on Friday the Jr. Rangers played a spirited, hardworking Alliance rival Cambridge Hawks. KJR special teams played a key role as the boys in blue scored a power play and shorthanded goal on route to a 3-2 victory. Eric Uba scored the winning goal for the Rangers and Jackson Dewar made keys saves early in the game to keep his team in the game until his teammates found their legs.
Game 3 played Saturday morning the boys in blue faced the undefeated Buffalo Jr. Sabres and played a sound team game winning 2-0. The Rangers shut down the Jr. Sabres and frustrated them throughout the 3rd period while receiving solid goaltending from Rhett Kimmel.
With a 3-0 record this set the table for the potential of 3 teams in their division being 3-1 which would result in a goals for and against scenario to determine who would advance and who would go home. The Jr. Rangers faced the 11th ranked Sudbury Jr. Wolves. Sudbury was a fast skating, skilled, physical team that came out flying. If Sudbury beat Kitchener they needed to win by 2 or more goals for the goals for and against tie breaker. Sudbury's speed and aggressive forecheck put Kitchener back on their heals and the Jr. Wolves jumped into a 3-1 lead after the 1st period. The Jr. Rangers recomposed themselves and started to get back to their game. The Rangers pulled even at 3-3. A late Sudbury goal in the 3rd put Sudbury up 4-3, add a Jr. Ranger penalty and you had the making for an exciting finish. In an attempt to get a 2 goal lead Sudbury pulled their goalie for a 6 on 4 advantage. The Ranger penalty killers, who had been solid all tournament, frustrated the Wolves power play found the open net late to tie the score at 4-4 and give the Rangers 1st place in their division and eliminate the Wolves. This was the 3rd shorthanded goal of the game that Kitchener had scored.
This set the stage for the Jr. Rangers to face their cross town rivals Waterloo Sunday morning in the semi-finals.
A short bench and fatigue finally caught up to the Minor Midget Rangers in this back and forth affair. The Rangers once again came out sluggish and found themselves down 2-0 at the end of the first period. If not for the goaltending of Rhett Kimmel Waterloo could have easily been up by more. The teams battled through the 2nd period with no goals. Heading into the 3rd period down 2 the Jr. Rangers didn’t quit and battled back to tie the score early in the 3rd. An injury to starting goaltender Rhett Kimmel saw Ranger’s Jackson Dewar enter the game with 13 minutes left. Jackson made keys saves and stopped a breakaway, however Waterloo scored their 2nd power play goal of the game and added an insurance marker late in the 3rd to take the game 4-2.
After a busy weekend the Rangers are right back at it with 3 games this week.
Monday December 14 at London Jr. Knights 8:00 pm (Western)
Saturday December 19 v Hamilton 4:00 pm (Activa)
Sunday December 20 at Lambton 1:30 pm (RBC)
Come out and support your Kitchener Jr Rangers Minor Midget AAA Hockey club