Wednesday night, the Kitchener Rangers were in Sault Ste. Marie for another matchup with the Greyhounds.
It was the third time the Rangers and the Soo had met this season, and it ended as the other two had, with a loss for the Rangers. This time, a 4-3 overtime loss, their second one-goal overtime loss to them this season.
Here are my takeaways from the game.
Weston Cameron & Avry Anstis Lead Offensively
After Chase Reid scored to give the Greyhounds the 1-0 lead, the Rangers responded with back-to-back goals, the first from Cameron Weston after Christian Humphreys found him cruising to the slot, where he beat Landon Miller glove side.
It was his fourth goal in 15 games this season, and all four of those have come in the last five games he has played. He scored his first career Ontario Hockey League (OHL) goal in a game against the London Knights back in October, before he was forced out of the lineup due to a staph infection that led to a lengthy hospital stay.
Since then, the only game he has not scored in was the night he returned to the lineup, funnily enough, again against the Knights, and has scored in three straight following that.
Related: 4 Takeaways From Kitchener Rangersā Needed Win Over the London Knights
Cameron’s goal was followed by what can only be described as a hardworking team goal. The Rangers went up the ice on a rush, dropped the puck to a trailing Cameron Reid, who had his shot blocked. He followed it and hustled to recover it in the corner. He found Romano, who made a strong move to take the puck to the net and find Avry Anstis crashing hard for the rebound, and chipped the puck past Miller, who was outstanding all night for the Soo.
Anstis scored his first OHL goal just a few days before Cameron, then scored again a few days later against the Firebirds, and now has scored in back-to-back games, with three in the Rangers’ last six games, for a total of five on the season.
Last season, Cameron only got into five games with the Rangers and Anstis one. Both spent much of last season playing Junior B with the Cambridge Firebirds in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. Both of these 17-year-olds are getting more comfortable at this level; you can see the confidence building with the shots and scoring chances becoming more frequent.
Neither of these two cheats the game; they work hard every time they’re on the ice. While they may not be getting recognized in prospect showcases and rankings, they have undoubtedly caught the eyes of some pro scouts with the way they play.
Cameron Reid Too Good to Not Talk About
For the sake of keeping this fresh, I’ve tried to avoid centering on Reid too often; realistically, if I did, every time he was the most noticeable player on the ice, we’d have 50 or more articles highlighting him by the end of the season.
However, we’re getting to a point where we can’t mention him nightly. With an assist on Anstis’s goal, Reid extended his point streak to four. In those games, he has eight points, three of them goals. Then, if you include a few more, the Rangers captain has 12 points and six goals in their last eight games.
With this recent hot streak, he has gotten himself over a point-per-game with 29 points in 28 games. He is already halfway to his assist total from last season, and is 64% of the way to his goal total from a season ago.
Reid is about to miss some games with Team Canada’s World Junior Championship training camp and potentially the tournament if he cracks the final roster. Still, despite that, he is on pace to drastically improve his point totals.
With the way Reid skates, he does not go unnoticed on the ice. It allows him to recover from almost anything defensively, and over the last two months, he has really started to figure out how to contribute offense from the point on a nightly basis.
The Nashville Predators prospect is the prototypical two-way defenseman everyone is looking for. It will be hard for Team Canada to pass on a player like him for the upcoming World Juniors, given how well he has been playing.
Instigator Penalties Are So Punishing
The most significant talking point from this game is going to be Lukas Fischer’s five-minute major penalty for charging after an incredibly dangerous hit on Matthew Hlacar, which ended his Greyhounds debut after just 15 minutes, after being traded by the Sarnia Sting earlier this week.
Luckily, Hlacar was okay after a while and returned to the game.
The ref’s arm shot up, immediately after the hit, signifying the penalty. But that did not stop Andrew MacNiel from coming in to protect his teammate, after the guy who committed the hit turned around and shrugged his shoulders like he didn’t have a clue he just came from Narnia and had multiple inches of air under his skate blades when he delivered the hit.
Even though MacNiel visibly asked for the fight and pushed his way through, Fischer accepted and threw the first punches, with two linesmen in between the two. While MacNiel asked for the fight, in no way can you say he instigated it when it was preceded by a hit, as dangerous as the one that was laid on Hlacar.
We’ve seen fights this season go without instigators, and it’s almost always when two guys square off concentually, but nonsensically. To me, if you’re going to allow fighting, these are the fights you want to eliminate, not the ones where players are standing up for their brothers.
It’s incredibly nuanced and situational, and in the specific example with MacNeil last night, Fischer was indeed ready and willing to take the fight before punches were thrown. To wrap up a scattered thought, I don’t like that the instigator results in a minor penalty, which puts a team down a man. I would prefer if these came as misconducts, where the guy can spend 15 minutes in the box between a 10-minute and a fighting major, and then let the power play stand or go back to five-on-five.
Maybe I’m nuts and thinking too much about this, but I love the lame discussions about rules. Let me know your thoughts below!
Rangers’ Point Streak Continues
Even with the loss, the Rangers got a point for the fourth straight game after three consecutive wins and are now 5-2-1-0 over their last eight games. It seems they are rounding back into form after a fairly average November.
The Rangers will look to extend this streak to five on Friday against the Flint Firebirds.
