Match-up preview: Rangers vs Knights

The Rangers are back in the win column this week after defeating the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference. Kitchener took down the Niagara IceDogs at home last Friday by a final score of 3-1.

Snapping their three-game losing streak in front of 6,435 fans, Gabriel Landeskog netted two goals for the Rangers, while his linemate Jason Akeson secured the third on an empty net.

"I thought I'd be a nice guy and give it to him," Landeskog said with a laugh in response to being just one goal short of the hat trick.

Landeskog, the goal-scoring Swedish phenom, was officially named the Rangers captain on Sunday. Akeson and Matt Tipoff will remain as assistant captains.

"It's a tremendous honour," commented Landeskog. To be named a captain for an organization that has had Mike Richards, Derek Roy and most recently, Dan Kelly wear 'C's.”

Head coach and general manager Steve Spott had noted prior to the season that he would retain three assistant captains until the team had a better idea of where top NHL draft picks Jeff Skinner and Jeremy Morin would play.

Skinner remains with the Carolina Hurricanes and just recently scored his first goal in the NHL, while Morin is with the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks.

This week the Rangers face long-time rivals, the London Knights in their second match-up of the season.

In their first meeting the Knights overcame the Rangers by a final score of 4-2. Ryan Murphy was Kitchener's lone goal scorer, stepping up from the blueline to keep the Rangers in the game. He also earned second star honours.

Murphy, who has been selected to represent the OHL in the Subway Super Series versus Team Russia in November, remains a consistent performer for the Rangers and is ranked among the top 10 in the league in scoring. In 11 games he has seven goals and 12 assists for 10 points.

Second spot in scoring for the Rangers squad belongs to Landeskog with nine goals and seven assists. Interestingly enough despite his high numbers, the 6-foot-1 and 207-pound 18-year old has only scored one of those goals on the road.

“I just love the hometown crowd," he admitted. "It really gets me going playing at home in front of the fans.”

Tonight we can expect to see Michael Catennacci return to the line- up centering his usual pair of wingers - Akeson and Landeskog.

The London Knights are currently 4th in the Western Conference at 7-2-1-0, while Kitchener is 5th at 7-4-0-0.

Going into today's game the Rangers have made some small adjustments to their power play and penalty kill, but look to repeat the calibre of play they executed against Niagara.

"[Friday] was really the first time we played a full 60-minutes," Landeskog noted.

The Rangers return to home ice next on Friday, November 5th when they host the Belleville Bulls at 7:30pm.