GLANBROOK (Feb. 19) -- Noah Matteson lit 'em up, and Matt Lukic shut 'em down.    Captain Matteson scored all three goals and netminder Lukic made 43 saves as the Glanbrook Rangers defeated the Hagersville Hawks 3-1 to take a 2-0 lead in their Bloomfield Division second round playoff series. 

"Lukic really made the difference tonight," said Rangers' coach Mike Christian. "They (Hagersville) are a really formidable opponent.  Every time we made a mistake, they were right on us.  But Lukic was there." 

Not that the Rangers made a huge number of mistakes, but the ones that they did make were potentially disastrous, particularly in a frenzied third period when the Hawks desperately tried to mount a rally, bombarding Lukic with 20 shots, many of them from point-blank range.  Lukic even faced down Hagersville shooters a couple of times on clear breakaways, the result of Ranger defensive indiscretions. 

"Coming from Jr. A where I wasn't on the best team, I've seen those situations many times before," explained Lukic.  "When you're faced with a situation where it's just the shooter and me, you don't really think about it.  There's no secret, you just need to do your job and stop the puck.  You do anything in your power to stop it."

Matteson, meanwhile, was taking care of business at the other end of the rink for the Rangers.  He opened the scoring at 12:38 of a first period that was characterized by high-energy play, attack followed by counter-attack, and rugged but skilful physical conflict.   In that session, the Rangers outshot the Hawks 19-11 and had a slight advantage in puck possession and scoring chances, although Lukic again was called on to make big saves at key junctures before Matteson broke the ice with his fifth post-season goal. 

Hagersville evened things up midway through the second period as Brendan Judson scored on a power-play at 9:19.  Although the game was intensely physical, Hagersville was the beneficiary of the only two man-advantage situations in the game. 

There was no let up in the end-to-end action as the third period got under way, and it was just a question of which team would blink first, and on this occasion, it was Hagersville.  Matteson connected for the go-ahead goal at 6:48 when he sped in on the wing and beat Hawks' goaltender Jamie Ferguson with a shot from the right faceoff circle. 

That left it up to Lukic, and he and his Ranger teammates held firm -- especially during a tense penalty kill just past  the midway point  -- until Matteson rolled a rink-length shot off a faceoff in the Ranger zone into the undefended Hagersville net to seal the triumph with 1:09 remaining in the period. 

"It's great for me because I like to work at a fast pace," said Lukic, explaining how he's handled the accelerated tempo of the games thus far.  "At the same time, for the team sometimes it's best to slow it down in the defensive zone so we can regroup."  

While Matteson and Lukic were the noteworthies, Christian pointed out that it took a full team effort to beat Hagersville and that would continue to be the case if the Rangers hope to advance to the next round. 

"We've had great execution so far," Christian said.  "We've got lots of guys contributing in a lot of different ways.  They're buying in to what we ask of them and they're doing a great job." 

NOTES: Noah Bollert earned assists on Matteson's first two goals to give him eight goals and nine assists for 17 points in the post-season, tops in the PJHL.  Matteson is right behind him with seven goals and nine assists for 16 points, 13 of those coming in his last four games ... Lukic is tied with four other goalies for the post-season lead in wins with four ... Connor McQuhae also had a pair of assists for Glanbrook.  ... The Rangers played the latter stages of the game with a short bench as both defenceman Lyall Shaw and forward Dan Rocco left with injuries.

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