Rangers finish up pre-season with a loss

KITCHENER — The dress rehearsal is over. Now, the real Ontario Hockey League season is set to begin.

The Kitchener Rangers wrapped up exhibition play with a 5-2 loss against the Niagara IceDogs Saturday afternoon at the Aud to finish the pre-season with a record of 2-3-0-1.

“I think there is a lot of good that we can take from it and I think there a lot of areas that we can improve on,” said Rangers head coach Jay McKee of the team’s performance to date. “That’s why we have a coaching staff.”

The ’Dogs potted a trio of tallies in the opening 2:35 to quickly put a damper on the 1,615 supporters that trickled in after the team’s Fan Fest which ran earlier Saturday.

Kitchener responded with a pair of power play goals by Jake Henderson and Riley Damiani in the second period to cut the lead to one before Niagara piled on two more in the third period to kill the rally.

Overage goalie Anthony Dumont-Bouchard stopped 24 shots in his second start since being acquired this past Monday.

Both teams were missing several players.

Kitchener was without last year’s leading scorer Adam Mascherin as he continues to work his way back from shoulder surgery. Forward Connor Bunnaman (Philadelphia Flyers) and defencemen Connor Hall (Pittsburgh Penguins) and Logan Stanley (Winnipeg Jets) are all at NHL training camps.

McKee used the pre-season to see which older players took the next step in their development over the summer. Greenhorns were evaluated a bit differently.

“With the young guys we want to really play them a lot to see what their abilities are,” he said. “To see how they handle pressure situations and if they can penalty kill. We learn how much teaching they’ve had prior to coming here when we play them a lot.”

The skipper pointed out some areas of concern such as too much puck watching in the team’s zone and forwards forgetting to watch for trailers when coming back to help the defensive unit.

On the flip side, the coaching staff is relieved to know it can count on import forwards Adam Liska and Rickard Hugg to play meaningful roles this season.

“We’re definitely pleasantly surprised with our Euros,” he said.

McKee also liked elements of the club’s play up front.

“So far I think we have some speed and tenacity that we’ll build our systems around,” he said.

Rangers forward Joseph Garreffa and defenceman Giovanni Vallati tied for the team lead in pre-season scoring with seven points in five games.

Kitchener opens the regular season against the Flint Firebirds of Michigan, Friday at the Aud at 7:30 p.m.