By Jamie Neugebauer
The Rangers hit three posts, scuttled a back-door empty netter and a shorthanded breakaway, and could not find a way past the Patriots net-minder as North York fell 3-0 to Toronto in Game 3 Saturday night.
A much better start yielded a number of good opportunities for the Rangers, but it was the host Patriots that opened the scoring.
A pretty passing play between Nathan Feric and Kevin Shier ended up with a tap in for Doug Bonar four minutes in.
After an even and scrappy second, Toronto made it 2-0 when Luke Carter snapped home a shot directly off of a Jacob Hayhurst face-off win 7:52 into the third.
Rory Bell jammed in the spoils after he and Nicholas Ursitti were launched on a 2-on-1 just under two minutes later to complete the scoring.
North York goaltender Gianluca Baggetta made 36 saves in his first career OJHL playoff start, while Evan Buitenhuis countered with 25 for his first shutout of the postseason.
It was the first time the Rangers have been shut out in the playoffs since Feb. 19, 2011.
North York will look to stave off elimination on Monday night for Game 4 at the Herb Carnegie Centennial Arena, puck drops at 8:30 p.m.
