Kitchener Earns Series Lead with Victory Over First-Seed Windsor Thursday
March 30, 2023 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Kitchener Rangers News Release
Windsor, Ont. - The eighth-seed Kitchener Rangers posted a 5-3 road victory over the number-one seed Windsor Spitfires in game one of the best-of-seven OHL Playoffs Thursday night. Francesco Pinelli (Los Angeles Kings) had a three-point night, Reid Valade tallied a pair of goals and Marco Costantini made 29 saves on 32 shots in the victory.
It didn't take the Rangers long, scoring just 40 seconds into the opening frame. Pinelli made a nice play to skate into open ice and find Reid Valade at the backdoor for a tap-in. Then, Adrian Misaljevic doubled Kitchener's lead at 9:02 with a one-timer on a cross-ice feed from Carson Rehkopf to give the Rangers a 2-0 cushion.
Windsor would end the period with a goal to cut the Kitchener lead in half. Brett Harrison was able to squeak a shot through the body of Marco Costantini to make it a 2-1 game after 20 minutes of play. Shots favoured the Rangers 14-11.
The teams played to the same score line in the second period with Kitchener scoring twice and Windsor once. With Windsor on the power-play, Pinelli who led the league with five short-handed goals during the regular season, made a strong drive to the goal and slid the puck under the leg of Joey Costanzo for his first short-handed goal of the postseason. Two minutes after the Rangers' goal, Shane Wright (Seattle Kraken) cut the lead to one, collecting the puck behind the net on a missed shot and wrapped the puck around beating Costantini to the post.
Less than two minutes after the Windsor goal, Trent Swick got a shift with Pinelli and Filip Mešár and made good, scoring Kitchener's fourth goal of the game to give them a 4-2 advantage with 8:31 to play in the middle frame. Shots favoured the Spitfires 25-24 after 40 minutes.
Kitchener played a perfect third period and were able to drain the clock to 1:04 left in the game for Reid Valade to pot his second goal of the game into the empty net. The Spitfires scored with 23 seconds left in the game to make it 5-3, but the game was out of reach for Windsor.
Kitchener secured a 5-3 victory and outshot the Spitfires 39-32. Kitchener was 0-for-1 on the power-play and a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill. Reid Valade earned the game's second star with a two-goal performance and Francesco Pinelli was the game's first star with one goal and two assists.
Next Up: The Rangers continue their best-of-seven series against the Spitfires Saturday. Puck drop is set for 7:05 p.m. at the WFCU Centre in Windsor. The series will switch back to Kitchener for Games 3 & 4 on Tuesday, Apr. 4 and Thursday, Apr. 6, both at 7 p.m. Rangers' playoff tickets are available now.
Ontario Hockey League Stories from March 30, 2023
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