The round robin portion of the 2026 Memorial Cup has ended for the Kitchener Rangers and their starting goaltender Christian Kirsch has been spectacular, being a massive part of why the Rangers have a bye to the final.
After going undefeated in the round robin, the Kitchener Rangers have been awarded a bye to the Memorial Cup Final.
The OHL champions reaching this point was a team effort, with contributions across the roster. However, one player’s performance stands out among the rest.
Rangers starting goaltender Christian Kirsch has been stellar in net against all the teams he’s faced in Kelowna the past week.
The San Jose Sharks prospect opened the tournament with a shutout against the Kelowna Rockets, stopping all 24 shots from the host team in a 5-0 victory.
After a two-day break, Kirsch went on to start in back-to-back games and continued to play strong.
The quick turnaround wouldn’t affect Kirsch’s performance against the QMJHL champion Chicoutimi Sagueneens as he stopped 26 of 28 shots, winning 3-2.
Christian ended the round robin with a 1.33 goals against average and a .957 save percentage.
Compare these statistics to how Kirsch performed in the OHL this season.
During the regular season, he had a 2.42 GAA and an .899 SV in 41 games. He had similar stats during the playoffs with a slightly improved 2.32 GAA and a .900 SV in 18 games.
Those numbers are nothing to scoff at but considering that Christian had the worst post-season SV and second worst post-season GAA of all the goalies going into this tournament, seeing him flip the script to become the best goalie is very impressive.
Kirsch and the Rangers now have four days off before they play for the Memorial Cup on Sunday. Regardless of which team they rematch, it will likely require one more strong outing from Christian.