With the playoffs rapidly approaching, the Kitchener Rangers appear to be heating up at just the right time.
On Tuesday night, they played host to their nearest rivals, the Guelph Storm, coming away with a 4-1 victory while extending their winning streak to five games.
The Rangers finished the season series of the Battle of Highway 7 by winning six out of the eight contests the two teams played.
Danny Zhilkin, who was acquired from Guelph in a midseason trade, opened the scoring with a short-handed goal for Kitchener at the 6:53 mark.
The lead was doubled about six minutes later when Reid Valade notched his 30th goal of the season.
That was the way the score would remain until 29 seconds into the third period when Max Namestnikov would get Guelph onto the scoresheet.
But from there, it was all Kitchener as Mitchell Martin would score at the 12-minute mark before Matthew Sop finished out the scoring with an empty-netter.
Marco Constantini turned aside 26 of 27 shots he faced in picking up the win for the Rangers while his counterpart Patrick Leaver made 20 saves in a losing effort.
The Rangers, who are currently in eighth place in the Western Conference, are now just a point behind the sixth- and seventh-placed teams which are the Owen Sound Attack and Flint Firebirds. The Storm sit two points in front of those teams in fifth place.
Kitchener will be back on the ice at the Aud on Friday night when they play host to the Attack while the Storm will also be at home to take on the Windsor Spitfires the same evening.
Comments