GLANBROOK (Dec. 18) -- The Glanbrook Rangers started their holiday celebrations early as they headed into the festive season with a 5-2 win over the Dunnville Mudcats. The Rangers are riding an eight-game winning streak into their holiday hiatus and currently sit on top of the South Bloomfield Division standings.

That's certainly plenty to celebrate, but for a while at the outset, things looked a bit gloomy for the Rangers.  They seemed out of synch, their play was disjointed and they gave the Mudcats plenty of scoring opportunities, one of which they connected on as Dunnville's Jakob Murdoch fired a shot from the point that eluded Glanbrook goalie Matt Lukic at the 1:54 mark. 

The Mudcats kept the heat on and the Rangers might have felt haunted by the ghost of upsets past (an inglorious 5-1 loss to Dunnville on Nov. 15).  

"We definitely needed to get some energy, as we weren't as prepared as we thought we were," said Rangers forward Connor McQuhae.  "But we managed to get some flow going and eventually, our overall team play was much better." 

Harrison Farrugia provided the initial spark with his sixth goal of the season at 13:31 and then Matt Wright showed some determination in the waning seconds of the period.  Rather than just letting the period wind down, he chased the puck deep into the Dunnville zone, forced a turnover, and fed Dan Rocco in the slot.  Rocco beat Mudcats' netminder Austin Davison for his ninth goal with just 12 seconds remaining, giving the Rangers a 2-1 lead and the chance to regroup. 

"The early penalty and the Dunnville goal made us feel like we had to score right away," said Rangers defenceman Jake Pelissier, explaining Glanbrook's slow start.  "We weren't in position or following our systems and that led to breakdowns.  We talked about our d-zone play, settled down and got back to playing our style." 

 Noah Matteson extended Glanbrook's lead to 3-1 with his 22nd goal at 3:52 of the second period, but Dunnville's Bryce Hoggard reciprocated just a couple of minutes later.  But then the Rangers got some early gifts in the form of power plays which they converted into goals by Noah Baltzer (pictured), his fourth at 9:18, and McQuhae, his 12th at 19:54. 

By that point, Dunnville had pretty much run out of steam and Glanbrook totally dominated the third period, outshooting the Mudcats 10-2, although they didn't expand on their 5-2 margin.

So, the Rangers now have an eight-day interval until their next action (a Dec. 27 rematch with the Mudcats in Dunnville) with time to reflect on their season so far and prepare for the final stretch run to the playoffs. 

"We want to continue building our chemistry," said Pelissier.  "We've been on a roll and morale is high because of that.  We want to keep that streak alive in the new year.

"Penalties have been a huge problem this year and we're looking to reduce that.  Come February and March, we can't be taking as many as we are now.  It won't happen overnight, so we have to start focusing on that more after the break."

 Added McQuhae, "We are hot going into the break, but we've also worked really hard, so it's useful to have some time off to relax.  When the break is over, we'll be back in game mode and starting to focus on playoff intensity hockey.  It's important that we maintain our consistency so we can finish first." 

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