One week is now left before playoff hockey kicks off once again. The Rangers entered Friday with a chance to continue a push for a .500 win/loss percentage as they were slated to play against Lowell/Caledonia on Friday and Grand Rapids Catholic Central on Saturday. The first meeting between Lowell/Cal and the Rangers on February 10th opened up the season for both teams, and the Rangers suffered a 4-0 loss at home. The game between Catholic Central on Sunday, however, wasn’t a rematch; this game was the first and only time these two would face off against one another in the regular season.

In the first period of game one, Lowell/Caledonia opened up the scorebook about midway through. With around 11 minutes on the clock, senior Austin Douma dished it to senior JT Schwartz. After receiving the pass from Austin, JT was able to find junior Nick Lockhart for an early goal, bringing the lead to 1-0 in favor of Lowell/Cal.

In the second period, the Rangers answered the goal scored by Lockhart in the first period. Senior Deacon Lobdell found the back of the net shortly after receiving a beautiful pass from junior Lucas Jefferys. The score at the end of the second would be 1-1, as both teams fought furiously for a major conference win.

As time wound down in the third period, the score remained 1-1. Both teams would fire shot after shot, unable to find the net, until Dylan Olson broke the tie with a huge shot, giving Lowell/Cal a 2-1 lead. The lead would remain for the rest of the clock, as the Rangers could not tie the game within the final six minutes left after Olson’s goal.

After suffering a loss the night before, the Rangers were looking for a huge bounce-back game against a 3-3 Catholic Central squad. Catholic Central hosted the Rangers on Senior Night, so the thought of losing on Senior Night must have stayed in the back of their minds all night.

The first period remained slow for the majority of the 17 minutes. It was until Catholic Central found the net later in the period that there would no be goals for either team. A small 1-0 lead for CC carried over into the second period. In the second, Catholic Central put the dagger in this one, scoring three more goals. Ironically, even though it was Senior Night, four different juniors scored for CC. The final score in this one was 4-0 in the favor of the Cougars.

As stated in the title, these losses dropped the Rangers down to 4-9 on the year and 3-6 in conference play. The Rangers sit in fifth in the Baum division of the OK Conference with just 8 points. The Rangers will have two more games to fix-up their record before the playoffs startup. The first game slates the Rangers with a rematch against GR Christian on Wednesday and another game against the Rockford Rams on Friday.