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| By: Tom Larry Anstett, KW Record - April 22nd, 1982 |
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Ottawa coach Brian Kilrea is good with the one-liners, but now he has a two-liner about the Ontario Hockey League championship series between the 67’s and Kitchener Rangers. Kilrea feels the eight-point showdown – which starts Friday in Ottawa and resumes Sunday in Kitchener – will be a battle between two lines: Moe Lemay, Jeff Vaive and Don McLaren of Ottawa, and Brain Bellows, Jeff Larmer and Grant Martin for Kitchener. “The two units are the most dazzling in the OHL, and Bellows, Larmer and Martin may well be the most talented and spectacular trio in the Rangers’ 19-year history.” “Let’s be realistic,” Kilrea said Wednesday. “Lemay’s line is my strength and Bellows’ line is Kitchener’s strength. The two lines are on the ice at all the crucial times. They’re on the power play, they kill penalties, they’re on in the closing minutes of the period. Whatever line commands will be the difference in the series.” Vaive and Lemay finished second and third in the OHL scorin race with 151 and 138 points, respectively, with Lemay firing a league-high 68 goals in 62 games and Vaive bagging 56 in 68 games. Vaive has been one of the most improved players in junior hockey, coming within four points of winning the scoring championship after managing only seven goals and 17 assists last year. McLaren, a Kitchener native, has also been a remarkable success story. He started started the year with the Rangers and saw limited action in 38 games, scoring six goals and nine assists before being claimed on waivers by Kilrea. He became a new man in Ottawa once he was paired with Lemay and Vaive. He had 16 goals and 18 assists in 27 regular-season games with Ottawa and now is their leading scorer in the playoffs with 12 goals in 12 games. Bellows, Martin and larmer finished one-two-three in Kitchener’s scoring with 97, 96 and 95 points, but all three missed too many games to be among the league’s top pointmen. Bellows, sidelined for 21 games with a separated shoulder, played in 47 games while Larmer – who had an eight-game NHL tryout with Colorado Rockies – played in 49 and Martin 54. Larmer, one of the trickiest players in Kitchener history, had 51 goals in 49 regular-schedule gmes and has scored in all 10 playoff matches for 15 goals. Rangers are ateempting to become only the fourth team in the last 33 years to capture back-to-back OHL championships and they’re going after another berth in the Memorial Cup tournament with impressive credentials. They’ve lost only four of their last 33 games and sport an 8-1-1 playoff record. They’ve lost just three of 28 playoff games in the past two years and many OHL observers feel they have more depth and balance than any club in the league. Excluding back-up goalie Darryl Boudreau who hasn’t played in 21 game, the Rangers are going with only four rookies and two of them – Scott Stevens and Dave Shaw – are among the best defencemen in the circuit. The 67’s, in direct contrast, feature 12 rookies. Combined with the fact Ottawa lost 10 of its top 11 point-getters from last year – including Doug Smith and Randy Boyd who played in the NHL as under-age juniors – it’s amazing Ottawa has come o far in what many people figured would be a rebuilding year. “When 12 rookies come in and form a good hockey club, you consider yourself lucky,” said Kilrea, an OHL mastermind whose teams finished first in the overall standings in two of the last three years and second the other time. “Getting John Odam on waivers from Windsor last year has really helped,” Kilrea said. “And Don (McLaren) really made the line go when we put him with Lemay and Vaive. One of the biggest secrets was Danny Longe as back-up goalie. He was a walk-on at training camp after being cut from the Soo’s protected list. A friend of mine called and asked if I’d give him a tryout and I did. He played 15 games and won 12 of them.” Ottawa’s No.1 is Jim Ralph, credited by Kilrea as “being the difference” in Tuesday’s dramatic seventh game of the semifinals against Oshawa. The Generals outshot Ottawa 42-27 but the 67’s won 5-4 on Kitchener native Larry Power’s second goal of the game in the third period. “Jim’s had some great games before, but none as great as that one,” Kilrea said. “He could have been all three stars.” Kilrea’s been going with three lines in the playoffs while Kitchener coach Joe Crozier often has gone with four. Crozier has been using five defencemen, Kilrea six. “Going with six of them has made us stronger in the third period,” Kilrea said. “It’s definitely one of the reasons we’ve been winning.” Ottawa, the least penalized club in the OHL, will be playing a club that had the second most penalty minutes in the regular schedule. Despite Rangers’ high penalty total, they’re generally a clean-playing team that likes to hit and will fight if provoked. The two clubs finished one-two during the regular schedule, Ottawa with 96 points, Kitchener with 91. Ottawa won the first three games between the two teams, but the Rangers took the last one. It all points to a classic series between the OHL’s two best teams – and two best lines.
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