Match-up preview: Rangers vs Storm
The Kitchener Rangers travelled to Sarnia last night to face the Sting, with the final result being an 11-2 Rangers victory. 12 different Rangers earned a spot on the score sheet, with eight of those players having multi-point nights.
Jason Akeson had a team high six points, and was named first star of the game. He has surpassed 200 career points and has now accumulated 204 regular season points in four years with the OHL. Jamie Doornbosch, Michael Catenacci (second star of the game), Gabriel Landeskog, Matt Tipoff. Matia Marcantuoni and Ben Thomson each had two points. Chad Lowry, Eric Ming, Ryan MacLean, and Zack Lorentz also earned one each. Ryan Murphy tallied three points and was named the third star of the match.
The Rangers are now second overall in the Midwest with a 20-7-2-1 record, for 43 points. Tonight's opponent - the Guelph Storm - have 31 points and are 13-14-4-1, putting them in last place in the division.
Kitchener has won a three of their match-ups against the Storm this season - 6-4, 7-1, and 4-3 respectively. The Rangers have more than doubled their opponent in goals scored with 17 in total, while the Storm have had eight goals against Kitchener.
In net for the Rangers tonight will be Brandon Maxwell. Maxwell has a 15-5-2-0 win record this season, with a 0.909 save percentage, and 3.17 goals against average.
For Guelph, Brandon Foote has been receiving the bulk of playing time. He is 10-10-4-1 with a 0.903 save percentage and is averaging 3.54 goals against.
On the front lines, it is still Akeson that leads the Rangers - and the league - in scoring. He has a whopping 14 goals and 44 assists for a total of 58 points. That means Jason is easily contributing over a point a night - nearly two - on average.
Peter Holland is amongst the top 20 in the league for Guelph sharp-shooters. He has 20 goals and 19 assists for a total of 39 points.
Tonight's game will be the final game at The Aud for Gabriel Landeskog and Tobias Rieder before they leave for their World Junior camps in Buffalo, New York.
Landeskog will represent Sweden, and Rieder will represent Germany.
Expect a variation of line changes and increased playing time from rookie players, to fill the voids left from these two key forward players.
The home-and-home with the Guelph Storm finishes off tomorrow in Guelph at 2:00pm.
