Kitchener improves to 2-0 at the 2026 Memorial Cup with a statement victory over Everett.
The Kitchener Rangers are absolutely rolling at the Memorial Cup.
After winning their opener against host Kelowna on opening night, they've now improved to 2-0 with a huge victory over the Everett Silvertips, officially booking their spot in the playoff rounds.
Here's all the action from Monday night's affair.
Kitchener (6) - Everett (2)
Kitchener Rangers players celebrate after a goal over Everett in the Memorial Cup. (Photo: Steve Dunsmoor / CHL)While they might not have dominated the shot chart, the Rangers sure did dominate the goals chart.
Captain Cameron Reid got the scoring started, with a hot shot from the left flank off the rush that might have caught Silvertips goalie Anders Miller by surprise, beating him over the shoulder.
Jack Pridham doubled the advantage on the power play after that, before Everett's power play struck back through Matias Vanhanen to get the WHL side within a goal.
In the second, the Silvertips would wrestle the game back level. Rylan Gould found a loose puck in front of Christian Kirsch, and he potted it to tie the game at two.
The game wouldn't stay even for long, though. Christian Humphreys fired a beautiful wrister through a screen to give Kitchener the lead back, and they would keep the lead the rest of the game.
The goals came fast and furious in the back half of the second, with Gabe Chiarot restoring the two-goal advantage on a rebound play with just under seven minutes left in the middle frame, before Pridham doubled down to make it 5-2 just over a minute later.
The Rangers needed to get Pridham's goal scoring going in order to have success in this tournament, and they definitely succeeded with that.
Everett pushed in the third, but couldn't find a way past Kirsch, who made a few big stops to keep the game out of arm's reach. Late in regulation, Cameron Arquette put the game away with a sixth goal past Miller, and that was that.
Reid had a huge night, posting a goal and three assists, while Kirsch stopped 40 of 42 Silvertips shots.
Kitchener now has a chance to clinch a bye to the Memorial Cup final with a win over the Chicoutimi Saguenéens on Tuesday night, and even a loss with a couple other tiebreaker results going their way could also see them receive the bye.
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