Ture Linden banged in his 21st and 22nd goals of the season and Jeremie Lintner made a number of brilliant stops among the 31 shots he faced, but it was not enough as the Rangers fell 3-2 in double overtime to the Toronto Jr. Canadiens Wednesday evening.
Linden, who now has six goals in his last five contests, got the scoring going at 6:17 of the opening period when Kyle Clarke forced a turnover on the fore check, and chipped the puck in front to the hard-charging winger.
Jake Joffe tied proceedings at the 8:36-mark of the middle frame, batting the puck out of mid-air passed a sprawling Lintner on a JRC power play, and then Gianfranco Cassaro’s screened wrister gave the visitors their first lead of the contest at 2:43 of the third.
Linden needed under four minutes to deflect a well-aimed Joey Maziarz point shot over the glove of Toronto goaltender Dalton Ewing, setting up a dramatic overtime.
Lintner was spectacular throughout, but especially in the extra frames, particularly stoning new Canadiens’ defender Brayden Sampson in alone near the end of the first overtime period.
There was nothing he could do 21 seconds into the 3-on-3, second overtime, as Joffe was left un-marked in the high slot, and cruised in with the puck on a Callum Cusinato feed to rip a wrist shot glove side on the veteran North York goaltender.
The Rangers fell to 0-3-1 in overtime, while the Jr. Canadiens improved to 3-3-1 in extra time.
North York maintained its hold on fifth spot in the Southwest Conference due to regulation wins, despite the fact that the extra point tied Toronto with the Rangers on points with 42 after an equal amount of contests.
The Rangers, who are still three games above .500, a mark they only achieved once before this season, will put that tenuous placing on the line Saturday night when they travel to Georgetown to take on the Raiders. North York has not beaten Georgetown in the two clubs’ three previous meetings so far this campaign.
Head coach Schomogyi’s men are back at the Herb Sunday afternoon with another very tough matchup in the form the Burlington Cougars paying a visit to North York, with the puck dropping at 3 p.m.
