The Kitchener Jr Rangers MD Blue team finished their 15 game playoffs with a big 5 to 2 win against the Waterloo Wolves White Sunday evening.
The win put the Rangers into a 3-way tie for the second seed however based on Alliance Hockey 3-way tie breaker rules (total points among 3 tied teams: Waterloo Black 7 points; Waterloo White 6 points; Kitchener Jr Rangers Blue 5 points) the Rangers will finish 4th and play the rival Kitchener Jr Rangers Red head to head in playdowns starting this Wednesday.
Keenan Hack was a workhorse for the Rangers and played man to man well in defensive zone as well as pushed forward and created offensive opportunities. Hack has been a leader for the Rangers all season and really deserved his Player of the Game nod as he was ready to compete all game and focused start to finish.
With the Rangers down by two goals, Jacob Reid-Brant got things rolling from Kailum Belanic and then Belanic scored a goal of his own from Carter Schade. Connor Coughling scored back to back goals with his first goal from Spencer Bulyaki and Andrew Bishop and his second goal from Bulyaki and Noah Park on the powerplay. Once again on the powerplay, Noah Roden sniped a beauty from Hack and Bishop.
The team’s goaltender was dialed in from puck drop and made the save of the game with a lightening fast glove on a rocket from the Wolves. Hayden Smith battled all game and played great to keep the Rangers in it until their offense clicked.
It was a complete team victory for the Rangers and guys like Aydan Costello and Connor Pinos set the tone with their hard work and energy. Evan Peori used his energy effectively and was a thorn in the Wolves side as was his line mates, Jack Masters and Ethan Lafleur.
The Rangers will need to leave it all on the ice and work extra hard to upset the Red team. The previous two games were both ties and each team only registered a single goal each. This series should be a battle as they always are when the Kitchener teams go head to head.
Go Rangers!