Brandon Caputo
@BCaputo_AGM
After splitting the games on the road in Flint, the Kitchener Rangers made sure the series did not return to Michigan by closing out the Firebirds in Game 5 at home in front of 6685 at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
A pair of goals by each team in the opening period from Tanner Lam of Kitchener and Alex Kostov of Flint had the game deadlocked at one. The score would remain the same until late in the middle period where Christian Humphreys would take the pass from Jakub Chromiak and beat Nathan Day for the eventual game-winning goal.
Jackson Parsons led the way for Kitchener stopping 24 of 25 Flint shots, including a few clutch saves in tight with the goaltender pulled late in the third period with the Firebirds desperately fighting for their playoff lives, to seal the victory and send the Rangers to a round two showdown against the Windsor Spitfires in a strong two vs three Western Conference matchup.
Flint went 0/5 on their powerplay opportunities while Kitchener goes 5/5 on the penalty kill as a major factor as to why they were able to pull out the victory in a close contest all the way to the final buzzer, leading to the post-series handshakes at centre ice between both clubs.
Nathan Day finished with 21 saves on 23 shots in defeat, for what was a low scoring defensive battle with Flint not backing down from a higher seed and showing they could hang with Kitchener throughout the series.
