By Jamie Neugebauer
A big part of going deep in the playoffs is finding ways to win games when the team is not at its best.
Friday night in North York was just one such game as the Rangers battled and came away with a 4-2 victory in Game 2 to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven series with the Buffalo Jr. Sabres.
Corey Kalk deflected in Liam Kerins’s cannon on a two-man advantage at 9:51 of the first period to give North York the lead, but Buffalo’s Pat Egan one-timed a puck past Jason Pucciarelli 37 seconds into the second to even it up again.
John Carpino’s shot bounced in off of a Jr. Sabre at 11:28 of the middle frame to give the Rangers the lead back for good and then Taylor Pryce jammed home a Ryan Kinsella rebound 24 seconds later to secure the boys in blue some precious insurance.
After Egan scored again at 13:52 of period two, Chris Aitcheson wired home a deflected Dana Tenenbaum shot to give North York its fourth goal, and to finalize the scoring on the night.
Kalk had his sixth multi-point outing in eight games this post-season while John Carpino has at least a point in all but one playoff game thus far.
Including Kalk, Carpino, Kerins and Adam Valadao, the Rangers have four players in double digits in points in the playoffs.
Jason Pucciarelii was fantastic making 31 saves and giving up very few rebounds on the night.
