RANGERS CLINCH THIRD; AWAIT FIRST PLAYOFF RIVAL

 

GRIMSBY (Mar. 4) —  Daniel Vella’s unassisted goal at 4:11 of overtime sealed a 4-3 victory over the Grimsby Peach Kings on Friday night and locked up third place in the South Bloomfield Division standings for the Glanbrook Rangers, while Grimsby’s win over the Port Dover Sailors on Sunday settled the final rankings, with the Peach Kings taking top spot and the Dundas Blues in second, followed by Glanbrook, Niagara, Port Dover, Hagersville and Dunnville.

All that remains now is determining which team will take the bye into the second round of the playoffs leaving the rest of the teams to be sorted for the preliminaries.  Should Grimsby or Dundas accept the bye, the Rangers will face the Hagersville Hawks in the opening series (which could start as early as this Wednesday).   Whoever the Rangers tackle, they’ll be entering the post-season on a torrid pace.  While they missed out on the ultimate prize of the division crown by a mere four points, the Rangers gave it a heroic try, finishing out their last 12 games of the season with a  sizzling 9-2-0-1 record.

“We have had a great stretch over the past 12 games, backed by outstanding goaltending,” said Rangers coach Andrew Tait.  “Both Robby (Mitch Robinson) and Cookie (Ethan Cook) have given us a chance to win every game, and I feel the boys are getting ready hopefully for a long playoff run.   We have some great leaders in the room, and I feel the guys have all become closer, even after dealing with the long layoff.”

Indeed, since the season re-started after the Covid shutdown in January, the Rangers have lost just a single game — to Hagersville — while winning five times, three of them key overtime victories.  In an encouraging development, over the 12-game span extending back to December 4,  they recorded wins over every team in the division while outscoring their opponents by a 42-25 margin.    Those 42 goals translate to a 3.5 goals-per-game average, a significant improvement on their 2.38 mark over the early part of the campaign.  Still a concern is the power play, which has shown some improvement of late, but finished at an anemic 9.4 per cent with only 11 goals scored with the man advantage.  The penalty killing unit has operated at a satisfactory 87.4 per cent.

“Championship teams all have one thing in common, and that’s effective special teams,” said Tait.  “We have come a little way with our power play, but there is always room for improvement.  Our PK has been a consistently strong point, but we also know that come the playoffs we can’t be taking penalties.”

With their playoff rival’s identity unknown, the Rangers won’t be able to prepare their game specifically for any opponent.  But Tait said that won’t interfere with their approach for the opening round.

“With the league being as tight as it has been, you never know what can happen. On any given night, any team can beat any other team,” he said.  “We need to prepare as a team and keep the momentum going.   In practice this week, we have to keep an upbeat tempo and have the guys ready to go, whoever the opponent is.   We have a special team in that locker room and we feel we can do something special this season.”

NOTES:  Sean Golebiowski scored his 15th goal against Grimsby, which put him tops on the team in goals and points (21)  … Ryan Burke collected his 8th goal, good for second spot … Vella finished with four goals and 10 assists for the scoring lead among Ranger defencemen … Ethan Cook earned his fifth victory in seven outings while lowering his goals-against average to 1.67 and boosting his save percentage to .942.