Ryan Hunt tallied twice and Nicholas Campoli bagged the winner as the North York Rangers blanked the Mississauga Chargers 4-0 on Sunday for their second victory of the young campaign.
Gianluca Baggetta made 36 stops to earn his fifth career Ontario Junior Hockey League shutout, while the Rangers gained a measure of redemption for their defeat in the reverse fixture back on Sept. 9.
North York head coach Brent Hughes was much happier with his clubs performance vs. Mississauga this time out.
“I just think the number one difference today was that we were capitalizing on our chances,” he said.
“We missed out on a bunch the last time we played them. I thought today was our most complete effort as far as playing a full 60 minutes, there are still little things to work on, but I am really happy with the way the guys played today.”
The 16-year-old Campoli scored the winner at the 16:31-mark of the first period when he one-timed home a perfect feed from Keegan Blasby on the power play.
Hunt got his first of the contest just over a minute and a half later by beating Chargers’ goaltender Tyler Richardson from a bad angle at 18:03.
Louis Kereakou stretched the lead to three when he finished a brilliant individual effort by Kyle Clarke at 14:41 of the middle frame, and then Hunt completed the scoring less than five minutes into the third period by deflecting a hard Jacob DeMaeyer point shot.
The rest was up to team defence, and the hard work of Baggetta.
“It’s great for him,” Hughes said of Baggetta.
“He is here to stop the puck, and in my opinion I have two great goalies. Every day they are competing for the net. I am happy for him and especially coming up this week with the Showcase, we are going into that with the right mindset.”
The Rangers will now head to Buffalo for the Governor’s Showcase, an event in which each team in the OJHL plays two games over three days.
North York will face the Wellington Dukes at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and then the Whitby Fury at the same time on Wednesday. Both games will be available on Fasthockey.com.