RANGERS FAIL TO FINISH OFF HAWKS

 

GLANBROOK (Mar. 16) — The Glanbrook Rangers squandered a golden opportunity to advance to the second round of the South Bloomfield Division playoffs as they dropped a 4-1 decision to the Hagersville Hawks, forcing a Game 6 in Hagersville on Saturday (7:30 p.m.)

The Rangers, it seemed, held all the cards heading into what they hoped would be the clincher:  they were at home in front of a capacity crowd and coming off two straight victories, including a shut out in Game 3 and an exhilarating come-from-behind 3-2 triumph in Game 4.   But it proved to be a misdeal and the Rangers’ effort fell short of a winning hand.  For 40 minutes, Glanbrook’s enterprise was a catalogue of slipshod execution, dubious decision-making and unforced errors that allowed the visitors to charge out to a 3-0 lead.

“There’s really no explanation for the way we started,” said Rangers’ coach Andrew Tait.  “They (Hagersville) were playing for their lives and we just couldn’t match their intensity.  We dug ourselves too deep a hole and we just couldn’t climb out of it.”

Riley Pinkney took advantage of a Ranger penalty to open the scoring at 5:43 of the first period, then the Rangers committed the cardinal sin of surrendering a goal in the last minute of that frame when a faulty clearing  attempt was held in at the point from where Brendan Judson drifted a shot through traffic to elude Rangers goalie Mitch Robinson.   Then a dreadful outlet pass to nowhere and no one was intercepted by Hagersville and resulted in another gift goal for Jason Horvat at 5:31.

Meanwhile, the Rangers, while holding the advantage in puck possession and scoring chances, failed to get on the board.

“We just could not finish down low,” Tait said.  “We were trying to be a bit too cute, instead of going to the dirty areas.”

The third period was a different story … partly.   For the Rangers, it was an all-out blitz.  At long last, they seemed to straighten themselves out and thoroughly dominated, attacking the Hawks’ net in waves.  And when Ryan Burke redirected a point shot from Brennan Ireland for his fourth goal of the playoffs during a Glanbrook power play at 3:33, it appeared that the Rangers might be ready to pull off another miracle comeback a la Game 4.

But despite blasting shot after shot from every which way — a total of 23 in the period to Hagersville’s six — and crashing the crease around Hawks’ goalie Gavan Banga, they were unable to strike again, and  James Johnston delivered the heartbreaker with an empty net goal at 19:43 to send the series back to Hagersville.

“They say that the toughest win to get in a playoff series is your fourth win,” Tait said.  “We’re still up 3-2 in the series; but we’ve got to show up and give it all we’ve got in Hagersville.”

NOTES:  Robinson suffered his first loss of the playoffs to go with three wins. He made 24 saves … The Rangers were 1-for-5 on the power play.

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