The Tobias Rieder experiment at centre kicks off today for the Kitchener Rangers, who are a tad light in the lineup.
Gone are John Gibson, defencemen Frank Corrado and Ryan Murphy and forward Radek Faksa. All four are at NHL camps.
Kitchener's lines:
Ben Thomson-Tobias Rieder-Josh Leivo
Brent Pedersen-Josh Sterk-Eric Ming
Justin Bailey-Matia Marcantuoni-Derek Schoenmakers
Darby Llewellyn-Curtis Meighan-Domenic Alberga
Ben Fanelli-Max Iafrate
Evan McEneny-Jesse Young
Jared Gilbert-Owen Stewart
Joel Vienneau 16-12-2-5 gets the start.
Niagara:
Brendan Perlini-Steve Shipley-Trevor Petersen
Anthony DiFruscia-Carter Verhaeghe-Jordan Maletta
Mitchell Fitzmorris-Ben Hughes-Mack Lemmon
Ondrej Kopta-Mike Robinson-Brook Hiddink
Shayne Rover-Jesse Graham
Luke Mercer-Aaron Haydon
Ryan Shipley-Broderick Kelly
Brent Moran (3-4-0-0) starts.
Puck points:
- It sure pays to stick around the Aud these days. Those bailing in the third are missing tons of action. Four more third period markers today for Kitchener.
- Justin Bailey is up to 11 goals and has four points in his past two games.
- Darby Llewellyn continues to make the most of his minutes and added his seventh of the season. He has been one of the go-to healthy scratches of late (when the lineup is full), but is making it hard for the Rangers to sit him. The 16-year-old has more than twice as many goals as OA winger Domenic Alberga.
- Give newcomer Derek Schoenmakers his first two points as a Ranger. He was the last of the group of new acquisitions to get on the board.
- I promise I won't keep doing this long, but ex-Rangers centre Matt Schmalz picked up his first goal with the Wolves. One in three games in Sudbury, one in 25 in Kitchener. Goalie Franky Palazzese lost his first game after winning his first two for the northern crew.
- It's nice to know that the Rangers are truly never out of a game and capable of scoring some late goals. That wasn't a characteristic of the team before the trade deadline.
- How about throwing Jack Moylan in for a game? The kid has been riding the bench for more than a month and is supposed to be the goalie of the future.
- Brendan Perlini blew by the Rangers' defence, roofed the puck and scored the opener for Niagara. It was a really pretty goal. A true goal scorer's marker. Hard to believe it was just his second of the season.
- Let's give Curtis Meighan some pub, he has three points in his past two games (two today) and continues to win draws and increase his plus/minus.
- Rangers' defenceman Ben Fanelli is plus-six in his last two games.
JB's top three Rangers: Justin Bailey, Darby Llewellyn, Curtis Meighan
