Match-up preview: Rangers vs Otters
Today's Thanksgiving Monday matinee wraps up a busy long weekend for the Kitchener Rangers. After a pair of games earlier in the weekend, playing host to the Erie Otters this afternoon marks the Rangers third game in four days.
This is the team's third match-up against the Otters so far this season. Kitchener is 5-1-0-0 while Erie has a 3-4-0-0 record.
In the 2009-2010 season the Otters were swept by the Rangers, losing all eight of their contests.
Standing in the way of Rangers supremacy is Erie forward Greg McKegg. The 18 year-old St. Thomas native was drafted in the third round, 62nd overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.
The Otters captain finished 1 1th overall in scoring in the league last season with 85 points in 67 games. This was a 67-point improvement from McGregg's 2008-2009 season - the best in the OHL last year.
Mckegg has maintained this momentum into the 2010-2011 season, and was named the OHL Player of the Week after earning seven points in only three games.
While his team has struggled to stay out of the penalty box, McKegg has impressed by notching a pair of short-handed goals in a single game - being only the fifth player in Otters history to accomplish this feat.
One of Kitchener's own was also in the running for the OHL Player of the Week award. McKegg edged Rangers' defenceman Ryan Murphy for the weekly honours.
Murphy had a five point game in the Rangers 7-3 win over Erie, and was awarded first-star of the game.
Russian netminder Ramis Sadikov is another threat on the Otters roster to watch for. At 6'4, 235 lb. the Erie fan favourite uses his size to his advantage in defending his territory.
Sadikov has been named an MVP for Team Russia at the World Junior Hockey Championships, and was been ranked 11th among North American goaltenders by the NHL Central Scouting.
But Kitchener's front lines are just as loaded, and the high-scoring Rangers offense is sure to be firing hard.
With his hot shot and scoring touch, Swedish sensation Gabriel Landeskog may play a little Russian roulette with the fellow European between the pipes. In six games Landeskog has an impressive 10 points with five goals and five assists.
From just across the pond, German-born right-winger Tobias Rieder will also have a hand in putting pressure on Sadikov.
We'll witness nothing short of a friendly encounter between European imports.
