Rangers win third-straight with victory over rivals in Guelph

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Guelph, Ont. – Filip Mešár scored the overtime winning goal at 1:54 of the extra frame Saturday to earn the Rangers their third-straight victory. Mešár recorded two goals, Hunter Brzustewicz tallied two assists and Jackson Parsons made 33 saves in a 4-3 come-from-behind road triumph for the Rangers over their highway-seven rivals, Guelph Storm, in front of 4,143 fans at the Sleeman Centre Saturday night.

Kitchener opened the scoring just 16 seconds into the first period. Forward Joseph Serpa was able to get in behind a Hunter Brzustewicz point-shot to shove the puck across the line. Guelph goalie Jacob Oster made the initial stop but couldn’t feel the puck under him allowing Serpa to pounce on the rebound.

The tides quickly turned as Guelph equalized at 13:29 of the opening frame. The puck was rimmed around the boards for Michael Buchinger (St. Louis Blues) to collect it at the right point. Buchinger skated the puck to the middle of the ice and beat Jackson Parsons through a screen with a slapshot. Just over two minutes later Guelph took the 2-1 lead. Michael Buchinger made a hard pass across the ice that wasn’t fully stopped by the Rangers defenceman in front of the net and found its way to Valentin Zhugin who quickly fed a backdoor pass from right to left for Sasha Pastujov (Anaheim Ducks) to tap it into the empty net.

The opening period ended with shots favouring the Storm 13-7 and Guelph leading 2-1.

Some penalty trouble hampered the Rangers in the second period. Guelph capitalized on a 4-on-3 man advantage at 18:48 of the middle frame. Michael Buchinger skated the puck down from the point to below the left circle and passed the puck back across to the right face-off dot for Sasha Pastujov to one-time a shot over the glove of Jackson Parsons. The Rangers stood strong killing off a 5-on-3 Guelph power-play later in the period to keep the score at 3-1.

The Rangers’ strong penalty kill paid off as they earned a goal back to cut the lead to 3-2 at 15:21 of the second period. Filip Mešár dropped a pass back to Francesco Pinelli (Los Angeles Kings) at the top of the left circle. Mešár drove hard to the net with his stick on the ice to direct a pass into the net. The period ended with Guelph still ahead 3-2 and shots favouring the Storm 29-13.

Kitchener started the third period strong knotting the game at 3-3. Matthew Sop made an acrobatic play, while falling to the ice, used his backhand to send a no-look pass into the slot for Adam Zidlicky to wire the puck under the glove of the Guelph netminder. Similarly to these teams last meeting at the Sleeman Centre, this game needed overtime. At the end of regulation shots favoured the Storm 35-22 and the score was tied 3-3.

Jackson Parsons came up big making a massive breakaway stop on Danny Zhilkin (Winnipeg Jets) with a blocker save. On the very next play, Brzustewicz sent Mešár for on a breakaway and he made no mistake. Mešár faked to his backhand and pulled back around the goalie before sliding the puck into the empty net to earn the game-winning goal.

The Rangers finished the game 0-for-1 on the power-play and 8-for-9 on the penalty kill. Mešár earned the game’s first star recording two goals and his first overtime winner for Kitchener. Goaltender Jackson Parsons returned to the Rangers goal after three games making 33 stops and earned the games third star.

Next up: The Rangers wrap-up the home-and-home series with Guelph this Tuesday at The Aud. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. Great seats are still available here.

Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton / Kitchener Rangers