Three weeks ago when Dylan McIlrath went down on Friday November 13th while playing for his Moose Jaw Warriors against the Lethbriidge Hurricanes the Rangers, the Warriors and all fans involved held their breath bracing for the worst news on his knee. After a week of uncertainty he would come to New York to have an MRI and a diagnosis on his very valuable young knee and it would turn out as good as anyone could have hoped with the sprained MCL diagnosis. With that diagnosis he was expected to miss only a few weeks and last night was the day the “Truck” would get back in gear against the Regina Pats.
Anyone who wondered how his knee was, after missing 6 games, they would find out quite quickly as 11:16 into the first period McIlrath would drop the gloves with Art Bidlevskii, who is no stranger himself to dropping the gloves. The fight itself was excellent as Bidlevskii would get in a few big shots on Dylan to start and then McIlrath would nail him with some thunderous right hands before Bidlevskii would get back in it and Dylan would get a few more in towards then. There was even a point in the fight where in trying to get his arm free it looked like McIlrath tried to throw Bidlevskii over.
Dylan would finish the night with zero points, seven penalty minutes and a +1 and nobody could care less other than he was out there healthy again helping his Warriors get the 9-6 victory in the game. After a slow start to the year the Warriors now sit in second place in their division with a record of 16-11-0-1. Dylan after a slow start of his own now has 2G 5A an even plus minus and 48 PIMs in 21 games.
