Houle rules in 7-4 preseason win
KITCHENER, Ont. The new-look Ontario Hockey League was on display as the Brampton Battalion downed the Kitchener Rangers 7-4 Sunday in the preseason opener for both teams.rrTag-up offsides, passes to the far blue line, rear crease lines and a shootout demonstration were among the new rules in effect, along with new standards of officiating by referees Ian Smith and Darren Price.rrIn evidence with the new rules was a new J.F. Houle, who scored two goals and added two assists to pace the Battalion offence. Houle, Michal Klejna and Aaron Snow made a strong pitch to form an offensive line once regular-season play starts, as Klejna and Snow each had one goal and two assists.rrMiles Cope, Jason Cassidy and Luke Lynes also scored for the Battalion, which built a 3-0 lead through the first period. Rookie Bryan Pitton, making his OHL preseason debut, stopped 38 shots in net for the Troops.rrAaron Lewicki scored two goals and Sean Courtney and Matt Pepe one apiece for the Rangers. Starting goaltender Mark Packwood gave up four goals on 16 shots before giving way to Charles Lavigne midway through the second period. Lavigne also faced 16 shots.rrHoule, who left the game briefly in the second minute after banging his knees together as he went into the end boards, opened the scoring on the power play at 9:01 of the first period on assists from Snow and Klejna. Houle then made it 2-0 at 12:24 from the same two setup men.rrOn the first goal, Houle, cruising across the front of the crease, took a pass from Snow behind the goal line to Packwood’s right and slid the puck home on the far side. The second goal came on a give-and-go two-on-one with Snow after Klejna got possession of the puck just outside the Kitchener blue line.rrDefenceman Cope scored on a slap shop from the left point during a four-on-three manpower advantage at 14:54. Kyle Sonnenburg and Matt Smyth drew assists.rrCourtney got Kitchener on the board on the power play at 4:40 of the second period when he deflected Mark Fraser’s shot from the right point.rrKlejna made it 4-1 when he tapped home a pass from Houle from the lip of the crease to Packwood’s left with the man advantage at 6:15.rrThe Rangers pulled within 4-3 on goals 2:13 apart by Pepe and Lewicki. Defenceman Pepe scored from the left point on the power play at 11:35, and Lewicki jammed the puck past Pitton from in close at 13:48.rrCassidy took a pass from behind the net from Lynes and beat Lavigne from a tight angle to the goaltender’s left at 14:51 before Lewicki scored with the two-man advantage at 19:57. With Cassidy and Tomas Stryncl in the penalty box, it took the Rangers 14 seconds to capitalize.rrSnow and Lynes scored the only goals of the third period at 3:23 and 15:40 respectively. Corey George and Houle assisted on the first and Scott Boomsma on the second.rrBattalion scratches were Kevin Couture, Michael Vernace, Phil Oreskovic, Nick Duff, Brock McPherson, Wojtek Wolski, Luch Aquino and John Seymour. Vernace, Oreskovic, Aquino and Seymour are at National Hockey League camps.rrKitchener scratched Dan Turple, Evan McGrath, Mike Duco, Boris Valabik, Matt Lashoff, Jakub Kindl, Myles Applebaum and Ryan Donally. The Rangers dressed 17 skaters, one below the limit.rrThe Battalion hosts Kitchener at the Brampton Centre at 2 p.m. Monday.rrBATTALION NOTEBOOK: The teams participated in a shootout after the third period, as will be the case in all preseason games, to familiarize players, coaches and officials with the procedure for breaking overtime ties this season. Preseason shootouts have no bearing on the final score, as ties after 60 minutes stand as the final result in exhibition games In the shootout, Taylor Raszka and Houle scored on the Battalion’s first and third shots, sandwiching a missed chance by Howie Martin. Jean-Michel Rizk and Justin Azevedo failed to score for Kitchener, giving the Troops the shootout by a 2-0 count and preempting the third Rangers shooter Houle scored seven goals and earned 12 assists for 19 points in 51 games last season The Battalion was 3-for-6 on the power play, while Kitchener went 3-for-9 Opening line combinations saw Raszka centre left winger Graham McNabb and right winger Smyth and Martin skate between left winger Lynes and right winger Cassidy. Klejna centred Snow on the left side and Houle on the right, and George was between left winger Justin Levac and right winger Patrick Sweeney Smyth, Klejna, George, Levac and Cope all made their OHL preseason debuts Defenceman Boomsma received a delay-of-game penalty for shooting the puck into the stands from his own zone late in the first period. The new rule parallels an older one pertaining to goaltenders Assistant coaches Kelly Harper and Mike Tamburro ran the Battalion bench while head coach Stan Butler watched from the media box Daren Machesney backed up Pitton.r
