Saturday night brought a clash between two of the few remaining undefeated teams in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), the Kitchener Rangers and Owen Sound Attack.
Related: 3 Takeaways From Kitchener Rangers’ 5-2 Victory Over Erie Otters
Coming into the game, the Rangers were playing the second half of a back-to-back after beating the Erie Otters 5-2 on Friday night. The Attack were coming in 2-0 after defeating the Barrie Colts on Thursday night.
Game Recap
It didn’t take long after the puck drop for the physicality to intensify in this one. The Attack came out and laid some big hits to put on a show for their home crowd in their home opener. The Rangers responded well to the physicality, with Weston Cameron and captain Cameron Reid stepping up and fighting, following big hits. But midway through the period, they lost track of Jake Crawford, who scored his first goal of the season, opening the scoring for the Attack.
The Rangers came out and tied the game early in the second period, on a shot that Haeden Ellis took from the point and that deflected off an Attack defender through the goalie’s legs. It was his sixth point in four games. Just under two minutes later, Jack Pridham deflected home a Jacob Xu point shot to take the 2-1 lead.
Again, midway through the second period, the Attack tied the game on a five-on-three man advantage. Then, they retook the 3-2 lead on another power-play goal. Cole Zurawski scored the Attack’s second goal and his second of the season, and Crawford scored his second of the game. The penalty parade continued, and the Rangers gave up another goal on the penalty kill, which was scored by Harry Nansi, his first of the season for the Attack.
Early in the third, the Rangers were in penalty trouble again. Right after a short five-on-three, the Attack scored their fourth power-play goal of the night on Tristan Delisle’s second goal of the season. This closed out a 5-2 win for the Attack. With the win, they stay undefeated while the Rangers fall to 3-1-0-0.
Rangers Struggling to Score Early
In four straight games to open the season, the Rangers have failed to score a goal in the first period. In three of the four games, they have given up the opening goal.
Against the Brantford Bulldogs in their home opener, the Rangers surrendered three first-period goals before pulling off a miraculous third-period comeback and winning the game in overtime. In the next game, the Rangers did not get on the board until the 30-minute mark against Erie. In their second game against the Otters, they fell behind early and did not score again till midway through the second period.
In all four games, the Rangers have done a good job of battling after giving up the first goal to regain the lead, even against the Attack. However, in the second half of the game, the Rangers became overconfident and struggled to stay out of the penalty box, which created the deficit they could not overcome.
Rangers Lacked Discipline in Loss to Attack
It was clear that the Attack came out with a game plan to set a physical tone in this one. They laid some big hits on the Rangers early, and through the first period, the Rangers did an excellent job dealing with the physicality. They did not give the Attack a power-play opportunity, despite Weston and Reid both dropping the gloves to step up and respond to hits that needed to be addressed.
In the last 40 minutes of the game, the Rangers gave the Attack seven power-play opportunities, which included two five-on-three chances and a four-on-three chance. This flurry of penalties in the second allowed the Attack to score three power-play goals in six minutes and four on the night.
That was the most significant difference in this game; the Attack’s power play took advantage of their chances, converting on four of seven chances. At the same time, the Rangers struggled to get anything going on the man advantage, scoring zero goals on five opportunities.
Before this game, the Rangers had been very disciplined in their first three games, drawing more penalties than they had taken. If anything, this game will serve as the leading example of why they need to stay out of the box in the future, because they are tough to score on at five-on-five.
Disjointed Rangers Showing a Lot of Promise Offensively
The Rangers had several players return from NHL training camps just before the weekend, all of whom were doing everything they could to learn and stand out in different systems. Returning to the Rangers was always going to be an adjustment, and despite the loss, the Rangers looked much more balanced offensively this weekend.
Ellis, Cameron Arquette, and Mathaes Stark carried the load offensively throughout the first weekend and all contributed on the stat sheet again this weekend. That adds to Tanner Lam scoring four goals in four games, Pridham having two goals in his first two games, and Luca Romano getting his first of the season on Friday night against the Otters.
With all the late-week additions to the lineup, the Rangers were unable to practice with their full lineup and get on the same page before this weekend, and it showed at times, with the Rangers having moments where they were very sloppy with the puck.
Over the weekend, they had a handful of dangerous turnovers. Most of these came from taking too much time to decide on where to go with the puck or trying to do too much with the puck. With some time to rebuild some chemistry in practice, this is something the Rangers will clean up with the talent they have.
Through four games, they are averaging 3.5 goals per game. An impressive rate, but it still feels like they have the potential to be better once they get a few more reps under their belt.
The Rangers will get another crack at the Attack on Friday on home ice. It will be their only game of the week, before a three-game road trip the following week.
