On Saturday night, the Kitchener Rangers wrapped up their 2025-26 regular season, almost pulling off a miraculous third-period comeback with many Rangers of the future in the lineup (the majority of the Rangers’ key players were scratched to ensure their health for the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) playoffs).
This lineup that included three players making their OHL debut and four more with eight or fewer games played heading into the 8-7 overtime loss to the Owen Sound Attack, who were in a must-win situation to avoid the Rangers and the Windsor Spitfires in the first round of the playoffs.
Although clearly outmatched, the young Rangers lineup continued to battle, even down 6-1 in the third period. Even though the final game of the season was a loss, it was the perfect ending to a season where the biggest takeaway was that this group battled from start to finish.
Rangers Were All Bought in From the Start
To open the regular season, the Rangers beat the Brantford Bulldogs 4-3, despite being outshot 17-3 in the first period and giving up the first three goals of the game. The lineups in this game looked nowhere close to what a potential OHL finals matchup could look like between these two teams, but between Game 1 and Game 68, it was easy to see that everyone who got a chance with this team bought into one common goal.
However, it wasn’t always the prettiest from the start. The Rangers started the season shorthanded with several injuries, and missing two key pieces they expected to have. Adam Valentini decided to go to Michigan State University shortly before training camp and Oscar Hemming was held out in a dispute with his Finnish team until he left for Boston College in the NCAA, with no resolution to the international transfer situation in sight.
Despite it all, they came out of the gate on fire with a 10-3-2-0 record through their first 15 games. The only real rough stretch of note was November, when the Rangers played .500 hockey, but they bounced back with an 8-3-1-0 record in December.
Rangers’ ‘Get Better’ Mentality
It was said numerous times, in numerous ways, by head coach Jussi Ahokas and Rangers’ players that the mindset was to ‘get better’ each day.
Even though the Rangers were in a great spot with a 23-10-3-0 record when the calendar flipped to 2026, there were weaknesses, and we saw a commitment to improvement from the front office, coaching staff, and players.
Early in the season, the Rangers’ penalty kill was one of the worst in the league. However, you could see they were playing a higher-risk style, trying to create pressure and heavily prevent entries at the blue line. It’s a style that requires a lot of trust and chemistry, and once the Rangers built that, they improved quickly shorthanded.
Then, after some critical additions — the best defensive forward in the OHL in Sam O’Reilly, and some much-needed size and physicality of Matthew Andonovski and Jared Woolley — this group became flat-out lethal shorthanded, leading the league by seven in short-handed goals, while having the second-best penalty kill percentage in the league.
The other criticism I had when the Rangers were struggling this season was that they were giving up too many Grade A chances when in a good defensive position, whether it was from a lack of physicality or guys getting caught puck-watching.
Part of this was the Rangers’ lack of goal scoring, but before the deadline, it was fairly clear the Rangers didn’t have the firepower to be a dominant offensive team capable of outscoring opponents nightly. It put a lot of emphasis on these lost battles in front of the net. But again, the Rangers continued to refine the small details of their defensive structure, which frustrated countless opponents this season and led them to give up four or more goals just 16 times in 68 games.
Between the trades, general manager Mike McKenzie addressed all the Rangers’ weaknesses by adding needed offensive firepower in O’ Reilly, Dylan Edwards, and Gabriel Chiarot, and the size on the blue line in Woolley.
Rangers’ Post Trade Deadline Dominance
From there, Ahokas and the coaching staff did a great job to get all their new stars comfortable with one of the most structured teams in the OHL and have them understand their role right away.
This allowed the Rangers to dominate right out of the gates following the Jan. 10 trade deadline, starting with a six-game winning streak that turned into a 10-game point streak. They ultimately ended with a 22-3-2-1 record following the deadline while outscoring their opponents 123-70.
Related: Kitchener Rangers’ All-In Approach Fueling Recent Hot Streak
That’s points in 89% of the game they played following the deadline. They went from being a team that had to win low-scoring games and struggled to keep up when they had an off defensive night to a team that can beat any team in any style of game.
From top to bottom, management, coaching, and every player have been committed to the Rangers’ goal of improving every day to chase down their championship aspirations. This is a special group, and if the playoff result wasn’t the only thing that mattered, I think they would be incredibly proud of the regular season they put together.
However, this group won’t be looking back on anything until all the dust settles in the playoffs. With how tight-knit and skilled this group is, it feels like a long playoff run and potentially a trip to the Memorial Cup Kelowna could be in their future, considering all their ability to bring their best stuff every night.
We’ll find out if this team is built for the bright lights on Friday night when the Rangers open up their series against the eighth-seed Saginaw Spirit at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
