Rangers getting set to host Erie in Game 1

The Kitchener Rangers will open their first round best-of-7 playoff series against the Erie Otters Friday night from the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

The Rangers went 5-3-2-0 down the stretch but lost their last four games of the regular season. One of which was an overtime loss to the Otters in the regular season finale. Meanwhile, the Erie Otters record to end the season was 7-1-1-0.

The Otters have been on a hot streak in the second half of the season, especially since the Jan. 10 trade deadline. The Otters collected 35 points to surge up the standings and finish in fifth in the Western Conference while the Rangers earned 30 points since that same time period and finished in fourth place.

General Manager Mike McKenzie said that it’s going to be a tough task for the Rangers.

“They’ve been able to climb up the standings in the last month or two of the season to get into fifth place,” said McKenzie. “They are playing good hockey, they are probably a pretty confident group, I would imagine right now.”

Kitchener has the season series advantage against the Otters going 4-1-1-0 against the club. The last two games of the regular season were wins for the Erie Otters. They have not won a game at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium this season.

This is the first playoff matchup between both clubs since 2005. The last time the Otters qualified for the playoffs was 2017 when they finished second at the Memorial Cup championship in Windsor.

McKenzie added the Otters have some dangerous weapons that the Rangers need to be worried about.

“Speedy forwards, some guys that have some skill,” he said. “They can be pretty good off of the rush. That’s definitely one thing that sticks out. They play hard, Stan has them playing hard and believing so it’s going to be a tough task for us.”

The Rangers have now qualified for the playoffs in eight straight years. In 2023, the Rangers were the first team in OHL history to sweep a first place team defeating the Windsor Spitfires. They lost in the second round to the London Knights. In 2022, Kitchener shocked the Knights beating them in Game 7 of overtime and lost to Windsor in the second round that year.

“That is the one thing that I like about our club, we do have a lot of guys that are pretty battle tested in terms of playing a decent amount of playoff games with our team. Moving past the first round the past two seasons, we have a lot of guys that have played in big games and playoff hockey. You’re looking at guys like Rehkopf, Sop and Mercer, guys that have been here for a couple years, those guys got to play in those games.”

McKenzie said that’s one thing his guys on the ice can lean on as they work their way through the first round. Their playoff experience.

While 17 of the Rangers 23 rostered players have earned their playoff experience, Rangers Head Coach Jussi Ahokas will coach in his first career OHL playoff game against legendary coach Stan Butler who is coaching in his 159th career playoff game.

“I don’t think much really worries Jussi,” said McKenzie. “He’s coached in World Junior gold medal games and things of that nature. He’s not a guy coming in here having not coached in big games. But, that being said, that was part of the reason why we were keen on hiring a guy like Jeff [Kyrzakos] and a guy like Brad [Flynn] is that they’ve coached in the CHL before and they understand how the league works. More so for the start of the year but now that it’s playoffs, they can definitely be helpful.”

McKenzie said that you can’t discount what Butler brings to the Erie bench and how many times he’s been in these playoff scenarios in his career.

“Anytime you have a coach that’s been around as long as Stan has, there isn’t much he hasn’t seen,” said McKenzie. “There’s a lot of experience there with him being behind the bench. That being said, he can’t go out on the ice and play for them.”

Kitchener will be without Trent Swick to start this series. He continues to serve a five-game suspension that was issued after the Rangers lost to Guelph Mar. 19. Assistant Coach Jeff Kyrzakos was also suspended after that game but he’s set to return behind the bench Friday night after serving a two-game suspension.

Catch the pre-game show right here on CityNews 570 with Mike Farwell and Paul Fixter at 6:30 p.m., puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m. CityNews 570 is your home for Kitchener Rangers hockey and you can hear every post-season game on the air.