The Kitchener Rangers scored twice in the opening five minutes of play and that’s all the offence they needed as the Battalion drop their second straight road loss in a 2-1 setback at the Auditorium in Kitchener on Sunday afternoon.
Rangers netminder Luke Richardson turned away 29 of the 30 shots he faced. Julian Sime, named the game’s second star, turned away 35 of 37 shots.
The Rangers got the jump on things in the opening five minutes as Adam Mascherin netted his 7th of the campaign just past the four-minute mark beating starter Julian Sime.
Then, off the face-off at centre ice, the Rangers came storming in and Riley Damiani beat Sime which made it 2-0 at 4:12.
Sime calmed down after that and the Battalion cut into the lead shorthanded as Justin Brazeau scored a shorthanded goal intercepting a pass and walked in and beat Rangers starter Luke Richardson high which made it 2-1 at 18:58 of the opening frame.
For Brazeau, he was responsible for all the Battalion goals on the two-game road trip as he had both tallies in Saturday's 3-2 setback at the hands of the Owen Sound Attack.
The two teams were scoreless in the second period and Julian Sime was sharp as he turned away 18 shots in that period.
Late in the third, Luke Burghardt, nearly got the equalizer with 1:30 left on the clock as he split the defence but could not beat Richardson who was consistently sharp all afternoon long.
The Troops pulled the goalie for the extra attacker but the Burghardt opportunity was their best final chance.
The loss drops the Battalion record to 5-8-2 on the season.
The Troops will continue on the road next Friday night when they travel to Flint to visit Garrett Forrest, Ryan Oulahen and the Flint Firebirds.
