Reece Doumani / OHL in 60 Podcast
The Kitchener Rangers are on the brink of elimination after falling to the Windsor Spitfires 6-3 on home ice in Game 3 of their second round Western Conference playoff series.
Kitchener would get off to a quick start in game 3, outshooting the Spitfires 5-0, approaching the midway mark of the opening period. At 9:26 of the first, the parade to the penalty box began for both clubs. There were 8 combined penalties called against the Spitfires and Rangers in a span of 2:49. These penalties eventually led to a 5 on 3 advantage for the Spitfires and Liam Greentree would open the scoring at 13:37 to give the Spits a 1-0 lead. Cristoforo and Abraham collected the assists.
Just over three minutes later, Greentree would strike again to put his team up by a pair. Protas got the lone helper on Greentree’s 11th of the playoffs. That would be all the scoring in the opening 20 minutes, with the Spitfires outshooting the Rangers 7-6.
In the second, the Rangers needed a spark from someone to get them back into the hockey game and Luke Ellinas came calling. He would receive a pass from Jack Pridham from below the goal line and Ellinas would make no mistake being Costanzo to make it 2-1. Trent Swick also collected an assist on the goal. The Spitfires would quickly answer quieting the large crowd at The Auditorium.
Liam Greentree scores his third of the game as he was just able to sneak it through Jackson Parsons to restore the two goal lead. Less than a minute later, Cameron Mercer would find the back of the net to get his team back within one. He would find a loose puck out front and beat Costanzo to make it 3-2. The floodgates definitely opened up in the middle frame. Windsor would get their two goal lead back with 6:09 to go in the second as Protas took the initial shot and then crashed the net to knock it in, making it 4-2. The Spitfires would carry this two goal lead into the 2nd intermission.
Liam Greentree would snipe his fourth goal of the game early in the third past Jackson Parsons. This goal was scored on the power play, 1:32 into the final frame to make it 5-2 Spitfires. Tanner Lam would then find the back of the net for the Rangers, cutting the deficit back to two. It would beat Costanzo five hole with some traffic in front.
Late in the period, the Rangers would fire everything but the kitchen sink at the Windsor net but Joey Costanzo turned himself into a brick wall. Liam Greentree would score his 5th of the game into the empty net to seal the game 3 win for Windsor.
Joey Costanzo collects another victory, stopping 28 on 31 while Jackson Parsons stopped 19 of 24, suffering the loss.
Windsor goes for the sweep on Wednesday in Game 4 at 7:00pm from the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
