On Friday night, the Kitchener Rangers were back in action at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium against the Niagara Ice Dogs, their second game since being snubbed to host the 2027 Memorial Cup.
Related: Guelph Storm Selected to Host 2027 Memorial Cup
They walked away with another dominant victory, scoring six goals for the second straight game, handing the Ice Dogs their seventh straight loss in a game the Rangers won 6-3.
I have a lot to say about this phenomenal performance from the Rangers, but before we get into my takeaways, I will apologize for my short rant below in advance.
Rangers Getting Offensive Contributions From Defensemen
On this week’s episode of The Aud Podcast, they highlighted how the Rangers’ defensemen were more active in the offensive zone last weekend against the Ottawa 67’s and Oshawa Generals.
Throughout the weekend, we saw Jakub Chromiak score against the 67’s, then the following day, Jacob Xu scored his first Ontario Hockey League (OHL) goal while Alexander Bilecki had a goal and three points on the night. This continued in the Rangers’ dominant win over the Ice Dogs, with Cameron Reid scoring two goals, Bilecki getting his fifth of the season, and Chromiak racking up another three assists.
If you include Reid’s empty-netter against the Generals and the Rangers’ three goals from defensemen on Friday against the Ice Dogs, 46.6% of their goals have come from the blue line in their last three games.
With this level of production from the back-end, it should come as no surprise that the Rangers are having their best goal-scoring stretch of the season.
While their defensive core is full of shutdown defensemen, it is nice to see this group getting more involved up the ice, as several guys on this blue line have immense offensive talent. In the last two games, when they have scored six goals, the offense has looked much more dynamic, with the defensemen getting more involved.
Alexander Bilecki’s Draft Stock Rising
As mentioned, Bilecki was coming off a three-point game against the Generals last weekend. It was his second multi-point game of the season, and he now has seven points in his previous nine games for the Rangers.
After a somewhat slow start on the stat sheet, he is really starting to come into his own while still playing tremendous defense. Earlier in the season, he was given a ‘C’ grade by NHL Central Scouting, indicating Bilecki as a fourth- or fifth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.
With the way he is playing now, that has to be rising. His combination of size, skating ability, and puck-moving makes him the prototypical defensive prospect NHL teams look for. Add in the offensive impact he is having, and that could make him a highly valuable prospect come draft time if that continues.
Rangers Have to Yell & Scream to Get a Call
Friday night’s officiating was questionable at best, not necessarily for the lack of calls but for the selectiveness of the whistle. To me, the refereeing can be summarized by what Matthew Hlacar had to deal with all night.
Four minutes into this game, after a whistle on a puck frozen by the Ice Dogs’ goalie, Hlacar shed his mitts and started unloading on Dogs defensemen Liam Spencer.
Initially, from the live view, it was hard to tell what led to the altercation. However, after review, you can see a sequence of cross-checks and slashes Hlacar took in front of the net before the whistle blew, any of which could have been a stick infraction. However, after taking that beating and the refs not calling anything, Hlacar felt the need to set the tone and let the Ice Dogs know that stick work like that wasn’t going to fly.
Hlacar is obviously a handful to deal with in front of the net; he’s big, strong on his skates, and is anything but scared of the physicality. With respect to Spencer, the only way to move him is to whack him in places that would hurt. But that does not change the fact that these are penalties, and Hlacar isn’t just going to drop his gloves and dummy somebody for no reason.
You could tell he was fed up with repeatedly being hacked and whacked, and that is not exclusive to this game. Hlacar felt the need to protect himself because the refs weren’t, and unfortunately, the only call was an instigator on Hlacar, when they should have come out of it with a power play if the refs had been paying attention to what was going on in front of the net.
Then, in the second period, Hlacar was called for slashing the Ice Dog’s goalie after making a save. I had no problem with the call. However, the refs missed a trip on Reid, no more than five feet away from the ref, which would have negated the slash and, debatably, missed two more cross-checks on Hlacar in front of the net.
Finally, in the third, after a board battle in the corner where an Ice Dogs defender kicked Hlacar, he went down in a heap. Nothing was called on the play, but after the Rangers’ coaching staff was irate on the bench, the officiating crew decided to review the play. It concluded that Grayson Toller deserved a five-minute major for slew footing.
It’s evident that in this game, the refs were picking and choosing when to call a penalty. The Rangers outshot the Ice Dogs 43-25 in this game and walked away with one less power play chance. That shouldn’t be the case if you go back and look at the missed high hits, cross-checks, and slashes.
Regardless of the amount or the difference, in my opinion, a penalty is a penalty whether there’s 50 in a game or zero. Call the game in front of you and protect the players, and these altercations won’t boil over into fights as often.
Rangers Heating up at the Right Time
To finish on a more positive note, these last two wins have been exactly what the Rangers have needed. They have allowed a league-low 61 goals. The concern has been the offense, and more so its explosiveness, rather than its consistency.
This game against the Ice Dogs was a dominant start-to-finish performance. Even with the Dogs leading 2-1 after the first, taking advantage of two power plays, it just felt like a matter of time before the Rangers took over, with them leading the shots 16-6 after one period.
Sure enough, the Rangers put up three in the second and another two in the third. This was a 4-0 victory for the Rangers at five-on-five.
It was nice to see the Rangers take advantage of two weaker opponents; these last two games were the perfect performances to gear up for Saturday night’s game against the Brantford Bulldogs, who will be coming in hot after losing their first game of the season in regulation to the Brampton Steelheads.
