Rangers trying to stave off elimination Thursday at the Aud
Posted Apr 18, 2024 12:15:35 PM.
Last Updated Apr 18, 2024 03:00:25 PM.
The Kitchener Rangers have their backs up against the wall.
Throw every hockey cliché at Thursday’s Game 4 playoff matchup with the London Knights. Rangers need a win to keep their season alive.
London leads the best-of-7 series 3-0. The Knights have not yet lost a game during the 2024 OHL playoffs. They swept Flint in the first round 4-0.
London will be without forward Kaleb Lawrence. He was suspended for five games Thursday after a check to the head to Rangers defenceman Simon Motew Tuesday night. Lawrence received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for the hit. Motew briefly returned to the game after the hit by Lawrence but missed the entire third period. He’s likely to miss Game 4 as well.
CityNews 570’s colour commentator Paul Fixter said on the broadcast Tuesday night that the hit was a blindside hit to a defenceless player.
“That’s five and a game,”Fixter said. “He’s got to go. The big thing is, it’s a defenceless player that gets a shot to the head. Simon Motew is just trying to defend,” he said. “Those are the things that we have to take out of the game. We talk about head shots, it’s really easy. Stop hitting people in the head.”
London’s Head Coach Dale Hunter told The London Free Press that the hit was “incidental contact” while the Rangers described it as a “vicious hit.” The league disagreed with Hunter’s assessment of the suspension being handed out.
Rangers Head Coach Jussi Ahokas said his club needs to be a little bit better in Game 4.
“We’ve been getting better every game,” he said. “We just have to do the small things right and things will turn for us. When you do the right things then you have a chance.”
Ahokas said his club just has to take each game one at a time. He said coming back from being down three games has been done before in the league and that’s been the team’s motto through the entire post-season.
“It’s been done before, it’s not like it’s never been done,” he said. “Why think too much ahead? That’s been our motto the whole playoffs. We’re ready to play seven games every series and we don’t quit until you get those four wins. We just made it a little harder for ourselves.”
Catch the game on CityNews 570 starting with the pre-game show at 6:35 p.m., with Mike Farwell and Paul Fixter. The puck drops at 7 p.m.
