GLANBROOK (Feb. 5) -- A goal by Nick Duguid midway through the third period proved the winnner as the Niagara RiverHawks stunned the Glanbrook Rangers with a 3-2 victory in the opening game of their Bloomfield Division playoff series.

It wasn't the way the Rangers might have expected this second act of the long PJHL campaign to begin, especially against a team they had dominated throughout the regular season, winning all six meetings and allowing the RiverHawks a mere 12 goals.

It comes as no surprise that mixing playoff intensity with the two most penalized teams in the Bloomfield Division (Niagara had 1,246 penalty minutes on the season, while Glanbrook had 1,114) would be a formula for fireworks.  From the outset, the game was a physical smackdown -- legal and otherwise; a powderkeg that threatened to blow at any time. 

The rugged nature of the contest seemed to work in the RiverHawks favour.  The Rangers laboured to get their offence in gear and often seemed overmatched in their own zone.  In fact, they were playing catch-up all night. 

"They outplayed us," said Rangers coach Kevin Miket. "Sometimes, you've just got to tip your hat to the other team."

Niagara's Tyler Seguin shocked the Ranger faithful as he opened the scoring at 6:03 of the first period, cashing in after some determined RiverHawks forechecking created a turnover  deep in the Glanbrook zone.   But defenceman Jamie Caruso brought the Rangers even late in the same frame as he swooped in from the point and took a nifty back-door feed from Matthew Hogan. 

However, the RiverHawks came out even stronger in the second period and regained the lead on a power-play goal by Keith Palmer at 10:59, while allowing the Rangers a measly five shots on net.  

The Rangers counterattacked in the third, and when Noah Matteson tied the score at 2-2 just over four minutes in, it appeared that Glanbrook might have righted the ship.  But it was not to be.  Niagara rose to the challenge and five minutes later Duguid capitalized on another Rangers' defensive lapse to put the RiverHawks ahead yet again.  

"We won the faceoff in their zone and had control of the puck," said Miket.  "But we lost it and they rushed into our zone.  Our defenceman stopped the rush and the puck went behind our net.  It seemed like the play was over, but through some hard work on their end, they got it out in front.  We had two guys behind our net and they had three in front."

Glanbrook toiled mightily to try to force overtime and Cooper Hood had a glorious opportunity to do just that with just about a minute remaining, but his point-blank scoring attempt was denied by RiverHawks goalie Mathew Boere, whose 33-save performance earned him the victory.  

The Rangers now face an uphill climb with two of the next three games in the series at Niagara, but the solution to their plight shouldn't be a mystery, said Miket.

"There's not much to say, we've just got to work harder to get pucks in deep and shots on goal," he said.  "We expected it to be a physical series.  We just have to get back to basics." 

NOTES:  Hood was making his first appearance in the Rangers' lineup since Jan. 8 when he was sidelined with an injury, a seven-game absence ... the teams amassed 84 minutes in penalties (46 for Niagara, 38 for Glanbrook) but there undoubtedly could have been considerably more from the frequent behind-the-play and after-the-whistle antics  ... Matt Lukic took the loss in net for Glanbrook.  He made 27 saves.  

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