KITCHENER - The opening salvo of the Highway 7 rivalry went to the Kitchener Rangers Friday night.
Backed by a 31-save shutout for Luke Richardson, the Rangers came away with a 5-0 win over the Guelph Storm in front of a crowd of just over 7,000 at The Aud.
Guelph plays in Owen Sound Saturday night and will host the Rangers Sunday afternoon.
A feisty first period saw a trio of penalties for the Storm, and Greg Meireles capitalized on one of them.
With 6:06 left in the period, he skated down the right wing line and right at the face off dot, snapped home his fifth of the season.
Early in the second, Guelph goaltender Anthony Popovich was stellar but couldn't stop the returning Mike Petizian on a rebound just two and a half minutes in.
The penalties continued to come, with some extra pushing and shoving with six minutes left in the period.
The brewhaha set up a full two-man advantage for the Rangers and with five seconds remaining on the 5-on-3, and the home crowd hollering for a shot, Rickard Hugg snapped in a one-timer to make it 3-0 home side.
It stayed that way until the third, when Meireles found Eric Guest on a 2-on-1 opportunity. Guest had nothing but net, and he notched his first of the year about eight minutes in.
Then, another power play opportunity for the Rangers resulted in hitting pay dirt at 11:51.
Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Alexey Lipanov also nabbed his first with the blueshirts on a one-timer off the right half wall to balloon the lead to five.
That rounded out the scoring, as Richardson scores his second career OHL shutout, his first since January 2, 2018.
On the other side, Popovich turned away 22 shots in the loss.
