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Keeping a close watch on an airborne puck are Greyhounds
Gord Dineen (left) Rangers' Mike Eagles and Soo goalie
John Vanbiesbrouck
It was
a good night’s work for the Kitchener Rangers Tuesday. They took
on three opponents and beat them all.
First
it was referee Jim Lever, then the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, then their
own late-game jitters.
The
triumphs added up to a 5-1 win – clinched by two empty net goals in the
last 71 seconds – that left the Rangers one point away from capturing the
Emms Division championship and advancing to the Ontario Hockey League finals
for the second straight year.
With
a commanding 7-3 lead in the eight-point series, the Rangers need only
a tie in the Soo Friday to eliminate the Hounds, whose loss, before 5,769
fans, extended their winless streak at the Auditorium to 10 games.
If
the series goes the full eight game, the Rangers will have three chances
to advance in pursuit of their year-long ambition – reaching the Memorial
Cup tournament, in which they lost in the championship game to the Cornwall
Royals last season.
Should
the Rangers eliminate the Hounds, they would have to win one more series
– against the Leyden Division champion – to represent the OHL in the national
championships in Hull, Que.
The
Ottawa 67’s took a 4-2 lead in the Leyden finals Tuesday, trouncing the
Oshawa Generals 6-1. Former Ranger Dan McLaren sparked Ottawa with
three goals, making him the 67’s highest scorer in the playoffs with eight
goals in 11 games.
“My
goodness, that was a long game. I thought it was going to go on for
five hours,” Rangers coach Joe Crozier said after the three-hour contest.
The
Rangers began thinking they were in for a long night at 10:06 of the first
period. With the Rangers leading 1-0 on an early goal by Mike Eagles,
Dave Nicholls uncorked a slapshot that hit the post behind Soo netminder
John Vanbiesbrouck. The puck caromed high into the net and came down
behind the goal line. The crowd exploded, Nicholls danced and the
Hounds trailed 2-0 – or so everybody thought.
Referee
Jim Lever mysteriously disallowed the goal, claiming the shot didn’t go
in. It did.
The
crowd booed vigorously and the furious Rangers protested – to no avail.
Rangers were in such a stew that it took them only a minute and 22 seconds
to get the goal back, with defenceman Al MacInnis scoring on one of his
long bombs from just inside the Soo blueline.
Soo
coach Terry Crisp then yanked Vanbiesbrouck and inserted Marc D’Amour.
Mario Micheili – with his first goal of the series – beat D’Amour in the
first minute of the second period to make it 3-0, but from then on D’Amour
was invincible.
The
Hounds made it 3-1 late in the second on a goal by Rick Tocchet and for
much of the third period the outcome was in doubt even though the Hounds
didn’t do much. There was always the feeling the Hounds – despite
being outplayed – might sneak in a goal or two, similar to what happened
on the weekend when the Soo scored two late goals in both games to pull
out a 4-4 tie and a 5-3 win.
But
the Rangers made no late mistakes this time and Hounds had no gas left
in their reserve tanks. Jeff Larmer – who has scored in all nine
playoff games – fired his 13th of the playoffs into the open net at 18:49
and defenceman Joe Levesque followed with another empty-net marker at 19:43.
“Whenever
we get ahead, we seem to take it easy,” Eagles said.
“We
think the Soo is out of the game, but then they lay back and wait for their
chances. We can’t lay back in the Soo Friday.”
While
D’Amour was sharp in net for the Hounds, who were outshot 51-27, Wendell
Young was a standout for the Rangers and was named the No. 1 star.
Although he handled only six shots in each of the first and third periods,
he made several key saves. He robbed Jim Pavese with about five minutes
left and twice in the final three minutes he alertly dove out of his net
to thwart scoring chances after the puck trickled through the Ranger defence
with the Hounds in hot pursuit.
MacInnis
a standout on Rangers' blueline
By: Tom Conaway, KW Record - April 14th, 1982
Perhaps
Kitchener Rangers’ Allan MacInnis might have been better off not attending
the Calgary Flames’ fall training camp this past season. After all,
when you get used to contending with the speed and strength of the pros
isn’t it only natural that a young man with NHL potential would figure
he had it made on his return to junior ranks.
Not
that the 18-year-old from Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia exuded that kind
of cockiness. He’s an honest worker who’s someday going to make his
mark in the big time. But the six-foot-one, 190 pounder did admitt
after Tuesday night’s 5-1 domination of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds
that he thought his second year in major A ranks would be much easier than
the first.
Why?
Well, for one thing the overall play is so much swifter in the big league
and when you head into a corner to fist out the puck, you can be sure you’ll
pay the price.
But after an inconsistent
regular season that started to straighten out in mid-January after another
brief trial with the Flames, MacInnis has gradually put his game together.
He
still makes mistakes. His errant clearing pass was intercepted at
the blueline and turned into the tying goal in a 4-4 tie last Friday in
the Soo. But he’s now one of the Rangers’ most consistent performers
back of the blueline, and it would have been an injustice if he had been
overlooked as a three-star selection Tuesday (a third behind goaltenders
Wendell Young and Marc D’Amour).
MacInnis
fired a long, booming slapshot midway through the second period to put
the Rangers infront 2-0.
But
MacInnis is contributing a lot more to the Rangers cause than offence these
days. He’s a stalwart in his own end, using his 190 pounds to advantage
and moving the puck out with authority.
Rangers’
crack statistics man Don McDonald recorded seven hits for MacInnis Tuesday
night, four in the first period, alone.
MacInnis
agreed that he’s been taking the man a lot better in the playoffs, and
playing a much improved defence as well.
“Joe
(coach Joe Crozier) has been talking to Calgary,” MacInnis said.
“They’ve been telling him to get me working more on defence. So that’s
what I’m doing.”
MacInnis,
a first round (15th overall) Calgary selection last June, thinks his play
began to improve last January after a three-game trial with the Flames.
He played regularly in a home game against the Boston Bruins, sat out in
Los Angeles and saw a few shifts in Calgary against Colorado before returning
home.
MacInnis
finished with 25 goals and 50 assists.
A first
team all-star, MacInnis was drafted by the Rangers two years ago after
being scouted in Western Canada by the Rangers’ Trevor Shilston and former
general manager Mike Penny. He had joined the Regina tier-two Pats
after convincing his parents that he’d be better off playing in Saskatchewan
than returning to midget ranks in Port Hawkesbury.
“I’d played for Nova Scotia
in the Air Canada midget tournament in Regina,” he explained. “Quebec
and Ontario juniors teams weren’t allowed to take midget-aged players out
of Nova Scotia, and I didn’t wan to play another year of midget at home.”
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