It was a tough opening night for the varsity hockey team as they suffered a big loss 6-1 against the Grand Rapids Christian Eagles Friday night at Patterson Ice Center. It was a rough night for the team, as the Rangers looked more and more outplayed throughout the game. This will hopefully be a good learning opportunity to prepare them for another big match at home Friday.

The first period went decently. The Rangers were hanging in the game and only allowed one goal against a very good GRC team. Junior goalie Carl Mielock had some great saves and the rest of the Rangers looked to keep up with the same speed as the Eagles. The second period is where things started to fall apart. Five goals were let up by Carl and the Eagles came out with a much faster pace than they did in the first period. The Rangers scored in the third and final period, but could not get anything else going as this was a nightmare home opener.

Next Friday, the Rangers will square off against their rivals, the East Grand Rapids Pioneers, which will no doubtedly by a close match. The speed of the game will play a big factor, as the Rangers saw what happened when they played at a slower pace against another good opponent in GRC. This is the Pioneers opening night and it will be interesting to see how they come out against a very angry Ranger squad who are ready to redeem themselves.