By Jamie Neugebauer
Liam Kerins and Taylor Pryce both had career nights in points with five and four, respectively, as the Rangers slipped into first place in the South Division with a resounding 9-1 win over Orangeville on Sunday.
Six separate North York players contributed multi-point outings in the contest.
Yet despite the offensive explosion, it is that ability to win games by battling and competing that had Rangers’ head coach John Dean excited after the contest.
“I think Georgetown taught us a lesson on how to grind out wins,” he said, regarding North York’s two recent away defeats at the Raiders.
“Our focus tonight was on work ethic and competing and when you work hard with the talent that we have, good results are going to happen.”
The Rangers exploded for four first-period goals, including three in the span of three minutes, to put the game’s result beyond doubt early.
Franco Loparco wired home his second goal for North York at 8:35 of the second period as the middle frame’s only tally, but then four more were added in the last stanza to put an exclamation mark on proceedings.
The previous evening, Jason Pucciarelli had won his first shutout as a Ranger, while Sunday belonged to Jacob Keogh; and he was rock solid yet again.
“I didn’t even have to think about putting Jake [Keogh] in net tonight,” Dean said.
“Both of our goalies have been monsters this year and to be honest they have been so good that we don’t even think about the goaltender position. We lean on them both and we really feel like whoever is in the net that we are going to win.”
Sunday was the third game of the season in which North York scored nine goals and the 14th with six or more.
The Rangers will head to Hamilton on Saturday to take on the Red Wings before returning home to battle Burlington on Sunday afternoon.
