Rangers are playoff bound
But Kitchener’s 3-0 loss in the Soo on Sunday makes that quest tough for the fourth-place club
The Kitchener Rangers are in.
The Ontario Hockey League club qualified for the playoffs for the 10th consecutive year with a convincing 7-3 romp against the Sarnia Sting on Friday.
But simply getting in isn’t good enough.
The Rangers, who are currently fourth in the western conference, are looking to move up.
“We want to finish as high as we can and get the best seed we can for sure,” said forward Carson Rehkopf.
But with just 10 games remaining in the regular season, and a competitive top-heavy conference, it’s a tough task.
One made even tougher after Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
Kitchener’s high-flying offence, which had scored six or more goals in the past four tilts, was held silent by a relentless Soo defence.
Greyhounds goalie Charlie Schenkel made 19 saves for his second shutout of the season as the Soo snapped Kitchener’s five-game winning streak.
That leaves the Rangers five points back of the third place ‘Hounds, who have a game in hand. A more realistic scenario heading forward sees the Blueshirts staying right where they are — in fourth place.
And that’s nothing to scoff at. It’s way higher than almost anyone predicted for the East Avenue bunch heading into this campaign. Heck, the OHL didn’t even have the Rangers as a playoff team in its preseason rankings.
Besides, fourth still carries home ice advantage for at least one round.
Only seven points separates fifth to eighth, so lots can change before the regular season ends on March 24.
If the playoffs started today, it would be a first-round best-of-seven series against the Owen Sound Attack, who are currently fifth in the west and 15 points back of the Rangers.
Kitchener and Owen Sound have split their season series 3-3 but still have two games to go.
The Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre is a tough barn to play in and the Attack boast a goalie capable of stealing games in rookie Carter George but the squad has just two wins in its past eight contests.
Guelph is sixth, just one point back of Owen Sound, but has been struggling with just one win in the last dozen games.
Injuries have ravaged the Storm all season, but the club is one of the older teams in the league, which is always a plus come playoff time.
The Rangers have dominated that season series 5-1.
Kitchener has won four of the five meetings with the seventh place Erie Otters, though Rangers coach Jussi Ahokas called that one defeat — a 6-1 drubbing about three weeks back — the ugliest loss of the year.
Flint sits eighth in the west and has been inconsistent for most of the season while the young and scrappy Sarnia Sting are just two points back of the Firebirds in ninth spot.
But there are no easy outs in the OHL.
Kitchener proved that last season when it swept the top ranked Windsor Spitfires as an eighth seed in the first round before losing in five to the London Knights in the west semifinal.
Despite a decade-long run of postseason appearances, the Rangers have only made it past the second round once in that span — in 2018 when it lost the west final to the Soo in double overtime in Game 7.
And while seeding is nice, Ahokas is more concerned about playing the right way.
“The biggest thing for me is not where we are but that our game is in a good spot when the playoffs start,” he said.
“You win games when you’re ready.”