Recently, the Ranger hockey team has made it a habit of winning games and this trend continued in the games this week.

On Thursday, the Rangers went on the road to play Mattawan. Coming into this game, the Rangers have had four straight wins with two shutouts thanks to both junior Peter Nemmers and senior Justin Baehr. This game was no different from games prior with Peter saving all of the 28 shots that he faced.

“It feels great to get back at Mattawan after they knocked us out in playoffs last year, especially shutting them out to prove who the better team is as a whole,” said Peter. This was important because throughout the game, both teams had their chances, but thankfully, the Rangers were able to come out on top.

The scoring started with sophomore Drew Wright in the first. It remained a one-goal game for the remainder of the period and continued through the entire second period. Both teams battled it out to find a way to win but in the end, the Rangers ran up the score with two goals in the third. Senior captain Sammy Mielock was able to score on the powerplay and give the Rangers a 2-0 which was then topped off by sophomore Gibby Grendel with an empty net goal.

This game put the Rangers’ record at 10-11 and the win streak at five games; however, these recent results are no accident. When asked what has allowed the team to become so successful, coach McSween said “We learned how to win games.  Our young guys have really developed and are playing key roles and our goaltending has been amazing over the last month.”

In pursuit of getting their win percentage up to .500, the Rangers hosted the Midland Dow in the first home game since January 17. This game came with such a big opportunity for the Rangers and they didn’t let it go to waste. Although the first period seemed to be mostly in FHC’s control, the game stayed scoreless into the second period; however, it didn’t stay that way for long. Gibby was able to net a goal from the point to give the Rangers the first lead of the game which was quickly doubled by junior Michael Hazzard a few minutes later. This put the Ranger lead at 2-0 going into the third.  After weaving through what seemed to be the entire Midland Dow team, Sammy was able to score the 3rd and final goal. The final score was 3-1 in favor of the Rangers which handed them their 6th win in a row.

Looking forward, the Rangers have a couple of tough games ahead of them before playoffs start. Hopefully, they will be able to continue their pattern of winning through this stretch, to do that coach McSween said “We need to keep working hard in practice and continue to play as a team.”

The Rangers’ next game will be against Mona Shores on Thursday, 8 pm, at Patterson Ice Center.