The Soo Greyhounds found their legs as Friday’s opener wore on, but two costly second-period mistakes proved decisive

While things progressively got better for the Soo Greyhounds, some critical mistakes and not capitalizing on their chances offensively were the difference.

The Kitchener Rangers capitalized on a pair of mistakes in the second period to open up a lead that would ultimately be the difference in an opening game win over the Greyhounds in game one of their second round Ontario Hockey League playoff series.

The Rangers grabbed a 2-0 lead through 40 minutes en route to a 3-1 win over the Greyhounds at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium to open their Western Conference semifinal series.

“A couple bad plays ended up in the back of our net,” overage forward Marco Mignosa said of the second period.

For John Dean, the Greyhounds coach said he was pleased with the Greyhounds progression in the game with the mistakes being of their own doing.

“We felt like the opportunities against were very self-inflicted and very much inside our control,” Dean said. “Great push in the second half of the game. Limit some of those self-inflicted mistakes and we have ourselves a potential blueprint.”

“Those are unnecessary mistakes,” Dean said of the Rangers goals in the second period. “You want to make the opposition beat you. You don’t want to beat yourself, so those two mistakes are very much inside our control and some of their other chances too.”

Mignosa said the Greyhounds “got better as the game went on.”

“We had a really dominant third period,” Mignosa said.

“We didn’t slow the game down at all,” added forward Quinn McKenzie of the final period.

Dean spoke of the Greyhounds shooting more in the third period as well.

“We want our shot volume to go significantly up, create some rebound opportunities against a very defensively organized team,” Dean said.

“The cleanliness of our breakout, the pace of play, we got on the hunt in the offensive zone, which is a big part of our team, and suddenly we start forcing them into some turnovers and creating some chances for ourselves,” Dean added.

Rangers coach Jussi Ahokas credited Kitchener’s third line of Gabriel Chiarot, Haeden Ellis, and Tanner Lam in the victory.

“Great game from our third line,” Ahokas said in an interview with RogersTV.

“They worked (hard),” Ahokas also said. “We were missing on our shots, trying to find the perfect play. Those guys were shooting and they got rewards from that.”

The teams skated through a scoreless opening period that saw the Rangers outshoot the Greyhounds 10-4 out of the gate.

Shortly after Mignosa hit the post for the Greyhounds, Kitchener would open the scoring at the other end as Ellis beat Sault defenceman Spencer Evans to the net and scored on a rebound of a shot by Chiarot on the right wing initially on the play. The goal came 2:15 into the middle stanza.

Ellis grabbed his second of the night at 8:05 of the period as he went to the net and redirected a pass from Alexander Bilecki on the right wing past Sault netminder Carter George shortly after the Greyhounds turned the puck over in the neutral zone earlier in the play.

The Greyhounds made it a one-goal game at 6:25 of the third period as McKenzie took a turnover by Christian Humphreys in the Sault zone and skated the puck down the ice on the right wing, beating Kitchener goaltender Christian Kirsch high short side from the faceoff circle to make it a 2-1 game.

Sam O’Reilly capped off the scoring for the Rangers, scoring into an empty Sault net with 1.3 seconds left in the game.

George made 23 saves for the Greyhounds in the loss.

Chiarot and Bilecki each assisted on both goals by Ellis in the win for the Rangers.

Kirsch stopped 27 shots for the Rangers in the opener, including 14 saves in the third period.

Game two in the best-of-seven series is set for Sunday night in Kitchener before the series shifts to the Sault for games three and four on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Christopher Brown remains out day to day for the Greyhounds while Justin Cloutier missed Friday’s contest as well.

Dean said Cloutier’s absence was related to his illness earlier in the season and he’s day-to-day with his status for Sunday’s second game not known as of Friday night.

Speaking on Brown, Dean said the veteran forward is also day-to-day, but isn’t expected to play on Sunday, though he is close to returning to the lineup.

On the injury front for the Rangers, veteran forward Luke Ellinas remains out long-term after undergoing shoulder surgery in December.

Kitchener defenceman Andrew MacNeil also missed the game due to injury.