While it was the biggest game of the season for both teams, only one played as though it was.
Battling for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Ontario Hockey League’s Western Conference, the Soo Greyhounds dropped a crucial game to the Kitchener Rangers on Friday night at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
With four points separating the clubs and the Rangers already holding two games in hand, Kitchener jumped out to a 4-0 lead and cruised to a 10-2 victory Friday to extend their lead further over the Greyhounds.
“It’s not as much angry as it is embarrassing,” said forward Brenden Sirizzotti. “That’s a must-win game. They’re the team we’re trying to catch, and we just gave them two (points).”
Overage forward Mark Duarte agreed the loss was an embarrassing one.”
“Especially in front of out own fans, we want to show well for them and we play for our city,” Duarte said. “They’ve been good to us all year and they’ve stuck with us through thick and thin. They deserve more from us.”
Greyhounds coach John Dean said he was “in shock” following Friday’s loss.
“I felt really good heading into that game,” Dean said. “I felt like the boys were excited.”
Dean said “we looked nervous the first five, ten minutes and it snowballed into a pretty poor effort.”
Asked about the opening period, Dean said the team looked “timid the first ten minutes.”
“We looked unconfident (and) allowed them to dictate play while we sat back on our heels,” Dean added.
In a game that saw numerous mistakes by the home team. Dean said the mistakes stemmed partially from the team “not wanting to be drivers of play.”
“When you do that and the puck goes on your stick, you’re not going to make assertive plays when you play passive away from the puck,” Dean added. “The two go hand-in-hand. If you assert yourself away from the puck, you’ll make crisp clean plays and assertive plays with the puck.”
Asked about the opening period, Duarte said the Greyhounds “were too passive in the D zone and we were running around a little bit.”
“We weren’t calling out and we weren’t talking, and we weren’t playing as five,” Duarte added.
For Rangers interim coach Mike McKenzie said the start, which saw the team outshoot the Greyhounds by a 14-2 margin and open up a 4-0 lead, proved to be cruical in getting things rolling.
“We started really well.” McKenzie said. “They key to the game was in the first period. We came out well and were ready to play from the drop of the puck.”
McKenzie added that playing a north-south game helped the Rangers get off to a good start in the win.
“We were moving the puck really well and we were playing direct,” McKenzie said. “When we’re skating, our guys with the skill take over after that.”
Kitchener opened the scoring on a delayed penalty as Francesco Pinelli took a pass in the slot from Cameron Mercer in the right corner and beat Greyhounds goaltender Charlie Schenkel glove side at 4:06
The Rangers took a 2-0 lead 1:32 later after a defensive zone turnover by the Greyhounds. Defenceman Matthew Andonovski got the puck at the blueline and got the puck to Carson Rehkopf. Rehkopf then fed Matthew Sop, who beat Schenkel up under the crossbar stick side.
Kitchener made it 3-0, again on a delayed penalty, as Francesco Arcuri beat Schenkel high glove side on a pass from Mitchell Martin on a 2-on-1 at 8:08.
With 3:22 to go in the period, Reid Valade made it 4-0 on a breakaway as he beat Schenkel 5-hole after taking a pass from Danny Zhilkin to go in alone.
Kitchener went up 5-0 when defenceman Lleyton Moore beat Schenkel from the top of the left circle at 6:24 of the second period.
Daylen Moses scored his first OHL goal 10 seconds later when he batted in a loose puck in tight on the next shift for the Greyhounds.
The Rangers made it a 6-1 game when Arcuri took a pass in the right circle from Hunter Brzustewicz and beat Schenkel high stick side at 7:58 The goal ended Schenkel's night as Samuel Ivanov entered the game in relief.
Christopher Brown then beat Rangers goaltender Marco Costantini stick side on a penalty shot at 9:07 to make it a 6-2 game.
The Rangers made it a 7-2 game in the final minute of the period when Valade beat Ivanov stick side on a one-timer after a pass from Francesco Pinelli.
Kitchener wasted little timed extending the lead further in the third period as Martin beat Ivanov on a breakaway on the power play as he took a pass from Arcuri at 2:48.
Just 2:03 later, Kitchener went ahead 9-2 as Pinelli grabbed a turnover in the left circle and beat Ivanov high stick side.
Kitchener hit double digits with three minutes to go when Ty Hollett took a pass from Pinelli and beat Ivanov stick side. Pinelli got the puck in the high slot after a turnover by the Greyhounds.
Brown was in on both goals for the Greyhounds in the loss with a goal and an assist.
Schenkel made 13 saves on 19 shots in just under 28 minutes of work in the loss. Ivanov stopped seven of 11 shots the rest of the way.
Pinelli paced the Rangers with five points in the victory with two goals and three assists.
Valade and Arcuri chipped in with two goals and an assist each for the Rangers while Moore and Martin had one of each.
Brzustewicz assisted on a pair of Kitchener goals.
Costantini made 17 saves.
The Greyhounds wrap up their current homestand on Saturday night as the team hosts the Erie Otters in a 7:07 p.m. puck drop at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
With the loss, the Greyhounds fall to 16-24-8-5 on the season and trail Kitchener by six points in the Western Conference playoff race and 15 games remaining on their schedule.
Meanwhile, the Rangers have three wins and an overtime loss in their last four games and improve to 24-24-3-0 heading into a game against Flint on Saturday night.