Curse remains
Kitchener Rangers lose to London 5-4
KITCHENER — The curse appeared to be over.
The Kitchener Rangers had a four-goal lead on home ice and a rowdy crowd behind them Friday night at the Aud.
That nasty 12-game losing skid to the London Knights — stretching the past 14 months — looked like it was finally going to end.
Then the Knights flipped a switch.
The sloppy passing by the forwards became crisp, defencemen stopped missing their assignments and goalie Tyler Parsons shook off the rust after missing the past nine games with a head injury and the flu.
And, just like that, the comfortable cushion the home side had built was gone and the Knights left East Avenue with a 5-4 come-frombehind victory to sweep the sixgame season series.
“You have to learn things from good wins and take something out of losses like this,” said Rangers head coach Jay McKee. “We folded a little bit under the pressure.”
It was all Blueshirts for the first two periods.
Greg Meireles and Connor Bunnaman beat Parsons with innocent-looking shots to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead at the first break. Veteran Darby Llewellyn added a pair in the second and the crowd was buzzing. But the party ended there. London blueliner Evan Bouchard gave the visitors some life when he cashed a power play marker with 0.3 seconds left in the second period.
And the Knights built off the momentum by beating Rangers goalie Luke Richardson with a trio in two minutes — and two of them in six seconds — to tie the game early in the third period.
Cliff Pu delivered the dagger with 40 seconds left in the game. ‰See game summary on C2
“Part of being a young team is getting those pressure situations … and feeling what it’s like and we have to be better moving forward,” said McKee.
The Rangers’ bench boss wasn’t happy with the officiating that saw the Knights get four power plays to Kitchener’s one.
There was a playoff atmosphere at the Aud.
Chants of “Cliff Puuuu” echoed from the upper reaches of the barn throughout the game in an attempt to rattle the Knights’ leading scorer.
And perhaps it was fitting since the sixth-seeded Rangers and third ranked Knights appear to be on a post-season collision course with six games to go in the campaign.
If the schedule ended Friday, the Midwest Division rivals would meet in the opening round of the playoffs.
“We always seem to face them in the first round; and if that’s the way it goes it’s going to be a tough matchup,” said London forward Owen MacDonald.
“They’re tough. They are wellcoached. They’re a team that works hard and have some skilled players. They’re a tough matchup and have been for the last three or four years.”
The Rangers face the Soo Greyhounds at the Aud Sunday at 2 p.m.