Rangers rookies ready for taste of playoffs

KITCHENER — They’ve heard the stories.

There is the maddening pace, the high pressure and the noise. Oh, the noise. It can be deafening inside the Aud during the Ontario Hockey League playoffs.

“It’s going to be a whole new thing for me,” said Kitchener Rangers rookie rearguard Michael Vukojevic. “I don’t know what to expect but I know it’s going to be pretty loud.”

The Rangers wrapped up their 68-game regular season schedule with a tilt against the Guelph Storm Friday night on home ice.

Now, the attention turns toward the playoffs.

The second-seeded Blueshirts will match up against the seventh-place side in the OHL’s western conference quarterfinals in a week. That slot will be filled by the Storm, Windsor Spitfires or Saginaw Spirit. Only one point separated the three clubs heading into Friday’s action.

But the foe is secondary. For five first-year Rangers — Vukojevic, defenceman Jack York and forwards Adam Liska, Rickard Hugg and Michael Petizian — the playoffs will be new territory.

And they can’t wait to get a taste of it.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said York. “From what I’m hearing it’s going to be harder and faster and a little more gritty.”

The Rangers were bounced from the playoffs in the first round last year after losing in five games to the Owen Sound Attack. Kitchener hasn’t cracked a western conference final since the team was swept by the London Knights six years back.

Expectations are high this time around.

The Blueshirts are a veteran bunch and currently ranked sixth in the Canadian Hockey League’s Top 10.

“This is the time we’ve all been waiting for,” said York, 17. “All the work you put in during the season, it pretty much comes down to this. Now we get to show what we’ve got.”

York and Vukojevic aren’t coming in cold. Both youngsters enjoyed long post-season runs in minor hockey. York lost a Game 7 final with the Ottawa Jr. Senators, while Vukojevic has won a couple of championships with the Mississauga Rebels program.

But it’s different in the OHL. “We don’t want to put any added pressure on the young guys,” said Rangers coach Jay McKee. “But the playoffs are what it’s all about. It’s why you train in the summer and play all year.”

And that has the first-times jacked up.

“I’m excited for it,” said Vukojevic, 16. “We have a good team and I think we can go far. Hopefully it’s a long run and we can do something special.”