London, Ont. – The Rangers jumped out to a 4-2 lead on the road in London Wednesday but the Knights used three unanswered goals, and one with 32 seconds remaining in the game, to sneak out a 5-4 victory over Kitchener in front of 8,823 fans at the Budweiser Gardens.
Rangers’ captain Francesco Pinelli (Los Angeles Kings) had four assists, Filip Mešár (Montreal Canadiens) had two goals and Simon Motew recorded two helpers in the contest. Marco Costantini made 33 saves on 38 London shots.
The rivalry was up and running early in this contest as there were five goals in the opening period. Kitchener got things started as they scored on their first power-play of the game. Mešár received a pass at the top of the left faceoff circle from Hunter Brzustewicz and fired the puck through the blocker arm of Knights’ goaltender Zach Bowen.
Kitchener doubled their lead shortly after as Pinelli made a nice play to curl back toward the half wall and find Roman Schmidt (Tampa Bay Lighting) for a one-timer in the high slot, this time beating the outstretched blocker arm of Zach Bowen.
The second power-play for the Rangers didn’t end as well, as with two seconds remaining on the man-advantage, the Knights got on the board with Sean McGurn finishing off a 2-on-1 break. On the ensuing faceoff, Reid Valade attempted to dump the puck into the Knights’ zone from just inside the red line, but the puck deflected off the linesperson and caromed into the London goal with Bowen out to play the puck behind the net.
London ended the period bringing the game back within one with 55 seconds left on the clock. Max McCue beat Marco Costantini with a backhand shot under the glove. The score was 3-2 in favour of the Rangers and shots favoured Kitchener 16-12 through 20 minutes of play.
The teams traded goals in the middle frame to keep the game within one. Kitchener added their fourth goal of the game at 5:11 with Mešár scoring his second goal of the game. A Simon Motew slapshot missed the net wide, but the puck bounced back out in front for Mešár to tap the puck home. He recorded his fourth two-goal game of the season for Kitchener and first since Dec. 9 against Niagara.
Isiah George pulled London within one again as he drove hard to the net and put a backhand shot far side between the post and left pad of Costantini. Through 40 minutes of play Kitchener led 4-3 and shots were even at 24.
London tied the game at 4-4, four minutes into the third period. William Nicholl scored his first OHL goal in his OHL debut as he finished off a nice passing play by the Knights. Then, with 32 seconds remaining in the game, Denver Barkey threw a point shot on net that deflected off a Ranger defender in front and over the shoulder of Costantini to give London the 5-4 victory.
Final shots in the game favoured the Knights 38-35. Kitchener finished the game 1-for-3 on the power-play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. All three stars of the game were awarded to members of the London Knights.
Next Up: The Rangers are back at The Aud Friday night as they host the reigning OHL champions, the Hamilton Bulldogs, for the only time this season. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m and great seats are still available here.
Photo Credit: Tiffany Luke / Kitchener Rangers
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