Rangers ride hot goalie
Richardson robs Battalion’s Brazeau for team’s first victory in two weeks
KITCHENER — It was a jumpout-of-your-seat kind of save.
Kitchener Rangers goalie Luke Richardson kicked out his right pad and sent the puck dribbling along the edge of the crease Sunday afternoon at the Aud.
When the keeper peaked behind him, he saw North Bay’s leading goal-scorer Justin Brazeau waiting to pounce on the wide-open cage in the third period.
Richardson dove back with his paddle, extended and robbed the Battalion marksman to keep his team’s one-goal advantage intact.
“Those plays you don’t really have time to think,” said the goalie. “You just react.” It was a game-saver, no doubt. And when you’re struggling like the Rangers — who headed into Sunday’s game on a seasonhigh three-game losing streak — you need your netminder to steal one for you.
Richardson certainly came through.
The Barrie native made 30 saves as the Rangers hung on to edge the Battalion 2-1, before 6,896 fans during the matinee.
It was Kitchener’s first win in two weeks.
“Coming off three straight losses, I knew I had to be big,” said Richardson, who improved to 2-5-1-0. “It gives us a little confidence.”
The backstopper’s performance helped bail out a Rangers offence that has scored just six goals in its past four games.
It looked like Kitchener was going to bust out of its scoring slump when Adam Mascherin and Riley Damiani potted markers just nine seconds apart, before the five-minute mark of the first period.
But one-time Rangers goalie Julian Sime tightened up to finish with 35 saves. And that, along with Brazeau’s first period shorthanded tally, had the visitors in the game until the bitter end.
Kitchener was hobbling in the back end.
Injuries and a suspension left the team with just five defenceman, and that’s including forward Joseph Garreffa, who was moved to the blue line to help.
But the forward group, which had been inconsistent on the backcheck during the three-game slide, helped.
Credit the turnaround to a stern pre-game “honesty session” with head coach Jay McKee, who called out a few players.
“I think it was an eye-opener for some guys,” said the skipper. “Sometimes it takes getting a little bit embarrassed in front of your teammates to realize what you’re doing out there. I don’t like to be that kind of guy, but it has to come up sometimes and our guys responded a little better.”
Defenceman Giovanni Vallati finished serving his two-game suspension for a hit to the head and is eligible to return Wednesday when the Rangers head to Erie to face the Otters in a rare 10:30 a.m. start.
Fellow rearguards Grayson Ladd and Alex Peterson are sidelined with shoulder injuries.