PREVIEW: Round 2 – Rangers and Knights

It’s another year of playoff hockey for the Kitchener Rangers and another year facing the London Knights.

For fifth time in seven years, the Rangers face the Knights in the post-season. The last three years the Rangers organization has made the playoffs, (2012, 2013, 2015) they’ve been eliminated by the Knights; the most recent being a tough six-game series last year.

This year, the Knights won four-of-six meetings, scoring 25 goals including an 8-2 win in the latest match-up a month ago.

Rangers Head Coach Mike Van Ryn knows his team will have to shut down London’s high-powered offence.

“They’re a team that has just scored a plethora of goals this year. They’re offensively driven. Their power play, not to say they live off it, but you can almost say it’s the backbone of their hockey team. It’s something where they’ve had a tonne of opportunities on the power play. They’ve been able to score on a lot of them,” says Van Ryn.

With eight points, and two power play goals, Adam Mascherin will be key to the Rangers own power play, and Rangers fans can rest easy when it comes to his health.

“I don’t know what you guys are all worried about. The fans are all up in a roar. We have to stop reading into things,” Van Ryn laughs. “He’s completely fine. He’s practiced every day; hasn’t missed a day. It’s just funny. I laugh about it. It’s good. I’m glad everybody is concerned. He’s completely fine, doing power-play and in on all the drills.”

As for how the week off will affect his team, Van Ryn says it’s nice.

“We’ve been able to rest our guys,” says Van Ryn. “I don’t think Brian Brosnan will be back. Dimitri Sergeev is close. Might be in, might be not.”

When it comes to who will be in, and who will be out of the crease, he will say he’s thought about it.

“I’d lie if I say I hadn’t, but I’m not going to tell you.”

REGULAR SEASON STATS 

Kitchener Rangers (4th) London Knights (3rd)
Record 44-17-5-2-1 (95 pts) 51-14-2-1 (105 pts)
Home Record 24-7-2-1 (51 pts) 29-3-1-1 (60 pts)
Road Record 20-10-3-1 (44 pts) 22-11-1-0 (45 pts)
GF 256 (3rd in West) 319 (1st in West)
GA 197 (4th in West) 182 (1st in West)
PIM 729 (8th in West) 1037 (1st in West)
PP % 22.2% (4th) 29.1% (1st)
PP% Home 23.2% (5th) 29.4% (1st)
PP% Road 21.0% (7th) 28.9% (1st)
PK % 80.1% (11th) 82.3% (6th)
PK% Home 80.0& (14th) 83.5% (6th)
PK% Away 80.2% (9th) 81.1% (6th)

 

PLAYOFF TOP SCORERS

Kitchener Rangers (4-1) London Knights (4-2)
Jeremy Bracco (2-8-10) Matthew Tkachuk (8-4-12)
Ryan MacInnis (3-6-9) Mitchell Marner (4-8-12)
Brandon Robinson (6-2-8) Christian Dvorak (2-7-9)
Adam Mascherin (4-4-8) Cliff Pu (5-1-6)
Miles Liberati (1-4-5) Aaron Berisha (3-2-5)

 

GOALIE STATS

Kitchener Rangers GP W L OTL SOL GAA SV% GA SO
Luke Opilka 1 0 0 0 0 18.75 0.571 3 0
Dawson Carty 5 4 0 1 0 2.77 0.911 14 0
London
Knights
GP W L OTL SOL GAA SV% GA SO
Tyler Parsons 6 4 1 1 0 2.34 0.930 14 0

 

Previous Meetings: 

Nov 20, 2015 – Kitchener wins 4-2 in London

Dec 16, 2015 – London wins 4-3 at home

Dec 29, 2015 – Kitchener wins at home 3-2

Jan 19, 2016 – London wins 5-4 on the road

Mar 6, 2016 – London wins at home 4-1 

Mar 8, 2016 – London smashed Kitchener 8-2 on the road.

Game Times: 

April 8, 2016 – Kitchener @ London 7:30 p.m.

April 10, 2016 – Kitchener @ London 3:00 p.m.

April 12, 2016 – London @ Kitchener 7:00 p.m.

April 14, 2016 – London @ Kitchener 7:00 p.m

April 15, 2016 – Kitchener @ London 7:30 p.m *If necessary

April 17, 2016 – London @ Kitchener 7:00 p.m *If necessary

April 19, 2016 – Kitchener @ London 7:00 p.m *If necessary

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