By Steven Ellis
The North York Rangers were victorious once again at the Herb, defeating the Milton Icehawks 6-0 on Wednesday.
The Rangers were hungry for goals in their third Wednesday night home game of the season, scoring a pair in the first. Four minutes in, Ross Krieger got the fun started when he took Nick Campoli’s pass and blistered it past Noah Battaglia, one of Canada East’s goaltenders at the World Junior A Challenge (the other being Jett Alexander, the Rangers starting goalie on Wednesday).
Nine minutes after that, the Rangers doubled their lead. This time, Sam Hunter’s shot from the blue line beat traffic in front, using some big bodies to screen Battaglia before the puck crossed over the line to give the Rangers the 2-0 advantage in the first.
The Rangers controlled most of the game, but only scored once in the second period. Returning to the team after two seasons with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs, Joshua Dame would tally his first goal of the season in just his second contest when he took Noah Jordan’s pass and fired one of the quickest wrist shots you’ll see, beating Battaglia to make it 3-0 for the Rangers.
Jordan was proving to be one of North York’s top players, scoring his 11th goal of the season to give him his third point of the night. Jordan would score on the power play after taking Dame’s pass and beating Battaglia with a quick snapper, putting the Rangers up by four.
James Fletcher would unleash a wicked wrist shot two minutes later for his fifth of the year while Fedor Rudakov would get one after returning to the team following a two-season spell in the WHL, putting the Rangers up by a whopping six goals to finish off the battle.
The Rangers will continue their busy week with a game against Kingston on the road on Thursday. North York will return home on Sunday with a 3:00 PM contest against Burlington, a game you won’t want to miss at the Herb!
Photo from Steven Ellis/North York Rangers
