The OJHL season began last Thursday, and if you blinked you might’ve missed the first three games of the North York Rangers season, so here’s the weekend recap. Thursday night the Rangers hosted the Stouffville Spirit at Herb Carnegie Centennial Centre. Late in the first with the Rangers down 4-0 Teagan Neuman (1) would become the first Ranger to score this year, his first OJHL goal. Cole Bowditch (1) and Andrew Artenosi (1) picked up the assists.
The Spirit would build up a 6-1 lead before the Rangers made a late push, scoring three unanswered in 6 minutes in the third period but that wasn’t enough. The Rangers lost the opener 6-4.
Matthew Babiy (1), Cole Bowditch (1), and Ervie Terwilliger (1) would get the other three goals.Terwilliger also scored his first career OJHL goal.
No time to rest for the Rangers as Friday they were on the road taking on the St.Michaels Buzzers. Midway through the second with the Buzzers up 1-0, Peter Smith (1) would score his first of the season to tie up the game. But that was all the scoring that North York would get, eventually falling 3-1 to the Buzzers. Amir Valiullin made 51 saves in the loss, tied for the fourth most saves in a single game in his OJHL career.
Saturday saw the Rangers get the day off before closing off their 3 games in 4 days stretch Sunday against the Milton Menace. Former Rangers forward Ashtyn Pacheco returned to the arena where he spent the first two years of his OJHL career. Peter Smith (2) scored late in the first to cut the deficit to 4-1, but the Rangers couldn’t figure out Menace goalie Ariel Zaslaver and lost 7-1.
Dylan Dewachter relieved Amir Valiullin in net for the third period stopping 14 of 15 shots in his first taste of OJHL action.
It was a physical affair that saw 58 combined penalty minutes between the two teams. This week, North York gets a much deserved rest before beginning a 4 games in 5 days stretch next week.
Friday @ Markham
Saturday @ Haliburton County
Sunday vs Trenton
Tuesday vs Lindsay
Fast Facts
Ervie Terwilliger leads the team with 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) through the opening 3 games.
Andrew Artenosi had 2 assists in his first career OJHL game Thursday night.
Jake Norman, Vasili Economopoulos, Cole Kirton, Elias Greenwood, Jacob Oswicki made their OJHL debut this weekend.
Matthew Rabideau and Charlie Hotles made their OJHL debut and got their first career point.
John Kenney got his first career point in the OJHL, an assist in the season opener.
Alexey Kulikov will play his 50th career game as a North York Ranger on Friday @ Markham.
