Match-up preview: Kitchener Rangers vs Brampton Battalion
The Kitchener Rangers and Brampton Battalion briefly joined forces on Thursday, November 11th in London at the SUBWAY® Super Series. Rangers’ blueline all-star Ryan Murphy and Battalion forward Sam Carrick teamed up as part of Team OHL to represent the Canadian Hockey League against Team Russia. “Not only was he my teammate, I actually roomed with him,” said Murphy. “[Tonight] we’ve got to forget about that friendship we just made and play our game.”
Murphy, a highly-favoured 2011 NHL Draftee, was the go-to-guy on the power play for Team OHL. While Carrick, a 2010 draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, recorded a goal.
“I wasn’t sure of how much ice time I’d get being one of the younger guys on the team,” the 17-year old Murphy confessed. “But I ended up getting a good amount and I thought I did pretty well.”
After the 4-0 shutout victory by Team OHL, the pair will be on opposite benches in tonight’s match-up.
The Kitchener Rangers are on their longest winning-streak of the season earning four back-to-back wins over the last two weeks. In those four games the Rangers have outscored their opponent by a staggering 17 goal differential – the Rangers have netted 24 goals, while their opponents have only recorded a combined total of seven.
Their most recent victory was over the London Knights in front of a hometown crowd of 6,310 at The Aud. Michael Catenacci secured the game-winning goal late in the third to ensue a 5-4 final in Kitchener’s favour. This was the Rangers second win over the Knights in the four-game streak, having also earned an 8-2 victory in London. The boys in blue also defeated Sudbury 3-1 and Belleville 8-0.
This evening’s game is the first of two contests for the Rangers against the Brampton Battalion for the regular season. The Battalion have lost three of their last four and hold an 8-6-0-3 record, while the Rangers are 12-5-0-0 overall. On top of being a fairly young squad, the Battalion team has been dealing with injuries – and all of those injuries have been on the front lines. Forwards Carrick, Philip Lane, Jonathan Johansson, and Matt MacLeod have missed between two and eight games each.
Kitchener has three players (Murphy, Jason Akeson, and Gabriel Landeskog) among the top 10 scorers in the league.
Ian Watters leads his Battalion troops with 11 goals, and five of those have been on the highly effective Brampton power play.
Where Brampton excels is in specials teams. The squad is first overall on the penalty kill and second only to the Rangers on the power play. The Rangers have dominated with 30 goals with the man advantage. Brampton has 18 goals on the power play and a .875 penalty killing percentage.
Rangers’ right-winger Akeson was named both OHL and CHL Player of the Week. The Orleans, Ontario native is the first Ranger this season to earn both honours, and only the third of seven Ontario League players to earn the CHL nod.
In three games, Akeson – in his fourth season with the Rangers, recorded three goals and twelve assists for 15 points; good for a plus-seven rating. He currently sits first overall in the league in scoring with a total of 34 points - 9 goals and 25 assists.
Landeskog and Murphy received honourable mention for the OHL award after tallying an equally impressive nine points a piece in three games.
Murphy leads all defensemen with 31 points, while Swedish sensation and 2011 NHL Draft eligible Landeskog leads the Rangers in goals scored with 14.
Lesser recognized forces on the blue line for Kitchener are Julian Melchiori – who leads all Rangers in plus-minus with a plus-ten rating, and Cody Sol – the 6-foot-5, 242-pound defender.
The Rangers will round out the weekend on Saturday against the Plymouth Whalers. The team hits the road for a 7:05 p.m. puck drop at the Compuware Arena.
