SAULT STE. MARIE – The Kitchener Rangers chartered airplane bobbed through a rain storm as if approached Waterloo-Wellington Airport late Friday night.  “We may have to land at Toronto International.  I won’t know until we go down and have a closer look,” the pilot announced.
     “Go for it!  Go for it!” chanted the Rangers, who joked and laughed through the same kind of turbulence that had them clutching their seats on the morning flight to Sault Ste. Marie.
     Nothing was going to spoil their fun on the way home because, hours earlier, the Rangers – like the pilot – went for it and got it.
     The Rangers captured their second straight Emms Division championship, edging the Greyhounds 4-3 before 3,730 fans, who tried to spur on the Hounds with banners like “We got pride,” and “Believe it.”
     But it was the Rangers who had more pride and stronger belief as they won their first game in the Soo in two seasons to advance to the Ontario Hockey League finals.
     Rangers, defending league champions, needed only a tie to advance but got an empty-net goal from captain Brian Bellows with 10 seconds left to take the eight-point series 9-3.  Rangers won all three games at home and had a 1-1-1 record in the Soo.
     Hounds threw a late scare into the Rangers when Dirk Rueter scored with 13 seconds left and goaltender Marc D’Amour, positioned at the blueline, was attempting to leave the ice again when Grant Martin got the draw to Bellows, who scored from center ice.
     “If we would have lost to an inferior team, I would have felt bad,” So coach Terry Crisp said.
     “But we didn’t.  I’ve said all along that Kitchener is the team to beat and they proved it again tonight.  If they don’t win the Memorial Cup I’ll be a disappointed coach.”
     Bellows and linemates Jeff Larmer and Grant Martin gave the Soo fans one long last look at what many OHL observers accounted for all four Kitchener goals.  Bellows and Larmer each struck for two goals and one assist while Martin, a tireless playmaker, contributed three assists.
     The amazing Larmer has scored in all 10 playoff games for a total of 15 goals.  Bellows has nine and Martin three, giving the line 27 of the Rangers 50 playoff goals.
     “In earlier games in the series, usually we had only one guy (on the line) going, but tonight all three of us were going,” Martin said.
     “We finally dominated the game for a change.  We got off to a slow start in the first period and then we started rolling.  There’s no way we wanted the series to go another game.”
     Larmer, who had eight goals in the series and scored from every position except standing on his head, connected in the first period as the Rangers fell behind 2-1 and then evened the score at 8:58 of the second.
     Bellows sent the Rangers ahead at 6:04 of the third when he slapped a hard shot that trickled in off D’Amour’s pads.  Bellows lost his balance on the play and crashed into the boards, injuring his left hip.  He got up slowly and finished the gmae but the hip stiffened up on the plane and he needed help walking.
     Hounds had a glorious chance to perhaps force a seventh gmae in Kitchener Sunday when, past the midway mark of the final period with the Rangers ahead 3-2, they had a two-man advantage for 55 seconds and then a single-man advantage for 1:05.
     But the Rangers, who have allowed just two goals in more than 30 short-handed playoff situations, again threw up a magnificent defence.  Martin and defencemen Dave Shaw and Scott Stevens killed the two-man disadvantage and the three of them, along with Bellows killed most of the single penalty which resulted from Al MacInnis playing with an illegal stick.
     Crisp attempted to nail Martin, too with an illegal stick with 13 seconds left, but Martin’s blade curvature was less than one-half inch and the Hounds were penalized instead.
     “I don’t condone that type of thing (stick measuring),” Crisp said.  “I never do it during the regular schedule.  But you have to try everything when you’re at the end of the rope.