McGonigle makes his season debut
Goalie’s first action since injury comes in tough loss
WINDSOR — It wasn’t the return Chris McGonigle had imagined.
The Kitchener Rangers goalie was sitting at the end of the team’s bench when head coach Jay McKee told him to get his mask on 39 seconds into the third period of Saturday’s game at the WFCU Centre.
The Blueshirts trailed the hometown Windsor Spitfires 5-2 when McKee yanked starter Luke Richardson after allowing five goals on 22 shots.
“I wasn’t really expecting it,” said McGonigle. “It caught me by surprise. There’s not much time to think. You have to go in and do what you do.”
It was the Belmont native’s first start in more than a year.
McGonigle was just three games into his Ontario Hockey League career when he suffered a season ending hip injury that required surgery in October of last year.
He was expecting to miss five months but didn’t rejoin the Rangers until a couple of weeks ago.
The club had hoped to ease him back but was pressed into action after a slow start in Windsor.
“It’s not necessarily a situation that you want to put Chris in but it’s also kind of a good scenario,” said McKee. “You kind of give your bench a little bit of a wake-up call.” The move worked. Kitchener potted a pair in just more than a minute to get within one of the lead before defenceman Giovanni Vallati scored the equalizer while diving in front of Spitfires keeper Michael DiPietro at 16:40 of the final frame.
The game seemed destined for a shootout but Windsor’s Luke Boka capped the 6-5 victory with 11 seconds left in overtime to snap the Rangers’ season-high four-game winning streak.
“I’m proud of them for the resolve they had in coming back and squeezing out a point and getting three out of four (points) on the weekend,” said McKee, whose Rangers bested Windsor 4-3 Friday at the Aud.
Connor Bunnaman scored on the power play and teammate Jake Henderson added a shorthanded marker as part of the three-goal third-period comeback Saturday.
Riley Damiani and Kole Sherwood tallied 31 seconds apart in the second period for the visitors while Adam Mascherin added three assists.
McGonigle made 13 saves in his season debut and admitted that he felt some butterflies in his stomach early on.
“The first little bit I didn’t see any shots and was a little nervous,” he said. “Then once I got the first shot I felt like I could settle in and play my game.”
The 19-year-old only played three games last season and was coming off his first victory — a 32 save shutout against Peterborough — when he got hurt.
The past year has been full of countless trips to the doctor, work with a physiotherapist and time in the team’s gym.
“I was pretty confident the whole time that I would get back,” said McGonigle, who signed with the Rangers as a free agent last year. “If you start doubting, it’s just going to go downhill from there. You just have to keep your head up. You have to truly believe that you’ll get back to playing games.”
The backstopper has dealt with a serious injury before.
Prior to joining Kitchener, he suffered a fractured vertebrae in his neck after a collision with a teammate during practice while playing with St. Catharines private school Ridley College and was sidelined for 14 weeks.
Needless to say, he’s happy to put the injuries behind him.
“It’s great to be back,” said. “It’s great to get on the ice and play again.”
The Rangers return to action Tuesday when they host the London Knights at the Aud at 7 p.m.