It was a rematch of last year's Western Conference Final and it had the same result.
The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds stopped the Kitchener Rangers 4-1 at the newly named GFL Memorial Gardens.
The Soo jumped out to an early 1-0 lead just over a minute into the game.
"I thought we had some really good chances to score," said Kitchener head coach Jay McKee. "But we definitely got away from what made us successful."
What was that, you ask? Too many turnovers.
"I don't care who you're playing, where you are, or what your record is, if you turn over pucks and you don't play the right way and you're chasing the play all night; in the ozone trying to be too creative and not getting pucks to the net, you’re not going to win."
Morgan Frost had three assists for The Soo who hand the Rangers their first regulation loss of the season.
Alex Lipanov made his Blueshirts debut, while Connor Hall returned for his first regular-season action since March 3rd 2018.
"It's always tough to come back after an injury," said the Cambridge native. "It's good to get my legs under me and I'm just going to get better day-by-day."
McKee agreed.
"When he gets more ice time and gets the tempo and the speed, once he gets some games under his belt, he's going to be cleaner, and things will be slowing down for him," said the coach.
The Rangers have now lost three of their last four, and try and get back on track Saturday with a date with the winless Flint Firebirds.
Airtime on 570 NEWS starts at 6:30 p.m.
Story by Chris Pope.
