Match-up preview: Kitchener Rangers vs Peterborough Petes
Tonight’s match-up sees the Kitchener Rangers host the Peterborough Petes for the only time this season.
The game kicks off a busy weekend for the Rangers, who are on the road in Saginaw tomorrow and Sault Ste. Marie Sunday.
The Rangers went 2-1-0 over the last week improving their season record to 24-10-3-1, while the Petes have lost two of their last three putting them at 12-26-1-1.
Kitchener netminder Mike Morrison had a standout weekend earning wins against the Brampton Battalion (2-1 final) and Sarnia Sting (3-2 final). Morrison made 34 saves to be named as the first star in the game against Brampton.
In 15 total games Morrison has registered 2.63 goals against average. The Hamilton native was also ranked 11th among goaltenders by the NHL Central Scouting in the midseason rankings.
He is not the only Ranger drawing attention from the National League though. Four other players on the Kitchener squad were noted as the best among their peers. 133 players from the CHL were included, with the highest crop coming from the OHL with 57.
Rangers’ captain Gabriel Landeskog earned top honours, and was ranked as the top prospect in North America. On the corresponding European rankings, his former Swedish teammate – Adam Larsson – led the way. If either of the two are drafted first overall, they would be only the second Swedish born player in history to do so, behind Mats Sundin.
Defenceman Ryan Murphy – who is leading all OHL blueliners in points – rounded out the top 10 North American skaters, and was ranked 10th overall. He has 17 goals and 34 assists this season with the Rangers.
Rookie leader Tobias Rieder was ranked 74th and has recorded 13 goals and 18 assists for the season, while Ben Thomson was 104th with a tally of four goals and ten assists.
Three of these prospects – Landeskog, Murphy, and Rieder – were invited to compete in the CHL-NHL Top Prospects Game Wednesday January 19th.
Tonight’s opponent – the Peterborough Petes – most recently lost a 6-4 contest with the Kingston Frontenacs. This marks their second loss in three games. Prior to Thursday’s game they were shutout by Ottawa 6-0 and had a 4-3 win against Oshawa.
Matt Puempel is the team’s leading point-getter with 26 goals and 28 assists for 54 points. For Kitchener, Jason Akeson leads all Rangers and is third in the league with 68 points– 16 goals and 52 assists. Additionally, Lino Martschini is leading Petes’ rookies in scoring with nine goals and 27 assists.
As a team, Peterborough has the fourth best power-play in the league with a 22.8% conversion rate. Kitchener just trails sitting in sixth place at 22.3%.
The Rangers would like to remind everyone that tonight’s game is “Sobeys night”. Six lucky fans with Club Sobeys cards will have the chance to participate in a first intermission contest to win up to 1,000,000 Club Sobeys Points.
Don’t forget to drop by the Sobeys table in the North concourse to pick up your free gift, and visit the Sobeys location on Ira Needles Boulevard Saturday February 19th to meet the Kitchener Rangers team.
