Kitchener, Ont. – The City of Kitchener made history Thursday night. Following a 5-1 victory in front of a home sellout crowd of 7,513 fans at The Aud, the Rangers became the first-ever eight seed in OHL history to sweep a one-seed. Kitchener posted 5-3 and 4-0 road victories before winning 6-3 and 5-1 on home-ice to complete the first round sweep. The Rangers led or were tied for 97.5% of the series, all but 5:26 out of the 240 minutes.
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Mitchell Martin and Reid Valade led the way with two points each in the game. Both players recorded a goal and an assist. Marco Costantini continued his dominance with a 30-save performance, allowing just one goal. Costantini improved his numbers to a 4-0-0-0 record, 1.75 GAA, and 0.949 save percentage in the series thus far.
Kitchener was 15-for-16 on the penalty kill in the series, holding the league’s second-best power-play during the regular season to just 6.25%. On top of that, Kitchener scored four short-handed goals and three power-play goals in the series.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in the opening period. Both teams did a good job to take away time and space. When called upon, Costantini and Onuska were both up to the task making big stops. With the game scoreless, Kitchener led 11-8 in shots on goal.
Windsor got the icebreaker 55 seconds into the second period to take their first lead of the series. A point-shot was deflected by Jacob Maillet that beat Marco Costantini past the glove.
Like the whole series thus far, Kitchener showed a great response. The Rangers replied with three unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead over the Spitfires. Carson Rehkopf snapped a shot bar-down from the slot to tie the game at one. Then, Danny Zhilkin (Winnipeg Jets) got his first goal of the series to give Kitchener their first lead in the game. A point-shot by Tomáš Hamara (Ottawa Senators) was deflected by Zhilkin to beat the Windsor goaltender.
To cap off the second period, Filip Mešár (Montréal Canadiens) scored a third goal for the Rangers with just 29.3 seconds left in the period. After a crucial penalty kill late in the period, Mešár one-timed a pass from behind the net beating Mathias Onuska through the glove arm.
The teams headed into the break with Kitchener holding a 3-1 lead and shots favoured the Rangers 25-22.
The Rangers did not let Windsor get a sniff of their goal in the third period and added two more goals to come away with a 5-1 victory. At 6:52 of the final frame, the puck hopped over the stick of the Windsor defender and Mitchell Martin stole the puck and skated in for a breakaway. Martin made a move on Onuska and slid the puck around the pad of the netminder with his backhand. Then with 59 seconds on the clock and the Rangers on the penalty kill, Reid Valade iced the game sending the puck into the empty net from the Rangers zone.
Kitchener finished the game 1-for-2 on the power-play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. Reid Valade earned the game’s third star with one goal and one assist, Marco Costantini earned the game’s second star with a 30-save performance, and Mitchell Martin earned the game’s first star with a goal and an assist.
Next Up: The Rangers will face the London Knights in the second round of the OHL playoffs. Kitchener will play game’s 1 and 2 on the road at the Budweiser Gardens, before returning home to The Aud for game’s 3 and 4. Start times are undetermined. Stay tuned to @OHLRangers on social media or KitchenerRangers.com for the latest information.
Photo Credit: Tiffany Luke / Kitchener Rangers