Matt Tipoff celebrated his 10 game scoring streak in style.

The Bulls’ 19-year-old scoring leader piled in a pair of goals, including the game winner eight seconds into overtime to send the Bulls to a 4-3 win over the Kitchener Rangers at Yardmen Arena on Saturday.

“It was a huge win for us,” Tipoff said. “We knew that they were a hard working team and we had to match that or work harder than them. We did and I’m really happy that we came out on top.”

Tipoff, who has at least one point in all but one game this season, extended his career-high point scoring streak to 10 straight games. He also had an assist for his second three-point game of the month.

Tipoff, who has had six multiple point efforts in eight games this month, leads the team with eight goals and 16 points in 12 games.

“It feels pretty good right now,” Tipoff said. “Now all I have to do is keep it going and be consistent. I’ve just got to focus on being consistent and playing my game every night and I guess the points will come.”

Tipoff moved into third in the OHL scoring race behind Tyler Seguin of the Plymouth Whalers and Taylor Hall of the Windsor Spitfires.

The win improved the Bulls record to 4-7-1-0 and snapped a four game losing streak in front of a season-high crowd of 2,902.

“The result is a great result after the seven days of hell,” said Bulls’ GM/coach George Burnett. “Give our guys a lot of credit. It wasn’t pretty at times but I thought we competed. Every time we got a little momentum we gave it back but we found a way. It’s nice to find a way to beat a good team.”  

Shane Prince opened the scoring for the Rangers with a short-handed effort early in the first period. Cody Alcock tied the game midway through the first period with his first goal of the season. Luke Judson put the Bulls ahead with a powerplay marker in the second period but Ryan Murphy tied the game with his first career OHL goal on the powerplay late in the second.

Tipoff put the Bulls ahead early in the third period before Michael Catenacci tied the game less than four minutes later.

Tipoff, Judson, Scott Howe, Brett Mackie, Stephen Silas, Bjorn Krupp and Marc Cantin all had assists in the win.

The Bulls killed off five of six powerplays, including four in the first period.

“It was strong,” Burnett said about his team’s penalty killing efforts early in the game. “It wasn’t perfect but we got through it. I though Gruby (goaltender Philipp Grubauer) made some quality saves. It’s been an area of our game that has been a good strength for five or six years. The last four or five games we had really gotten away from it.”

Cantin wore the “C” for the first time this season. Burnett said that he hasn’t assigned a full time captain but that Cantin is an important part of their leadership group.

“We have other guys that could wear it and probably will,” Burnett said. “We haven’t made any final decisions – we may not have a full time guy this year, we’re not sure. We felt him worthy to wear that tonight. He’s a warrior and he’ll lead regardless of whether the C’s on his shoulder or not.”

The Bulls were without all-star defenceman Shawn Lalonde, who missed his second straight game with a shoulder injury that is likely to keep him out of the lineup until next month.

Grubauer turned aside 38 shots in the win for the Bulls, who were outshot 41-36, including 14-10 in the third period. Tipoff had the only shot on net in overtime.

 Game Sheet

Click here for he game recap and video highlights on BellevilleBull.com

Photo: Aaron Bell/QuinteHockey.ca

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