Ranger Dave Nicholls makes good use of Niagara Flyer Bob Laforest as he rides into
the boards during OHL action Friday night

     Kitchener Rangers are far more than a one-line team, as coach Joe Crozier emphasized Friday when he said, “everyone took part,” in Rangers setting a team record for most wins in a season.
     But as Rangers begin defense of their Ontario Hockey League Championship their fortunes will rest largely with Brian Bellows, Jeff Larmer and Grant Martin, who look after the power plays and penalties besides their regular shift.
     The line has been inconsistent recently with only one or two members flying at the same time, but all three were agog Friday in a 4-2 triumph over Niagara Falls Flyers that gave the Rangers a schedule ending 44-21-3 record.
     That’s one more win than the 1973-74 Rangers who were 43-18-9 when the regular season was 70 games instead of 68.
     Bellows fired two goals and received a standing ovation from many of the 5,224 Auditorium fans after breaking a 2-2 tie with a shorthanded goal at 10:42 of the second period.
     He took a pass from Mario Michieli, who had just stepped out of the penalty box to leave the Rangers one man short, then cut around the remaining defencemen and backhanded the puck past Mark Laforest.
     Martin cemented the win at 10:15 of the third period when he banged in Larmer’s rebound.  Kitchener’s other goal went to Michieli, who was a late starter after Mike Eagles took the warmup but was dropped from the lineup because of a bruised knee.  Allen Bishop and Craig Kales replied for the Flyers.
     “Tonight we were moving the puck around instead of trying to beat many men,” Bellows said of his line.
     “We play our best hockey when everyone is unselfish,” added Bellows, who still can’t breathe through his left nostril after being elbowed in the nose March 2 in Sault Ste. Marie.
     Rangers and the Soo – the top two teams in the Emms Division standings – receive first round byes in the playoffs.  Rangers meet the winner between Niagara and Windsor while the Soo faces the London-Brantford victor.  Both quarter-finals are six-point series, with the semi-finals and finals both eight-point affairs.
     Rangers head into the playoffs with only three losses and a 19-3-1 record in their last 23 games.
     Although they played some outstanding hockey in that stretch, the Rangers dominated only a handful of games.  Eleven of the 19 wins were by two goals or fewer with seven by one goal.
     “We had to work hard,” Crozier siad.
     “We played against some good hockey teams and not every game was an easy one.  We took a lot of penalties, and Bellows and Martin killed a lot of them, which took away some of our offense.
     “But any team that wins 44 games has to have a pretty good club.  We might have won a lot more if it wasn’t for all the injuries and (NHL) recalls.”
     Bellows, Larmer, and Martin all missed a bunch of games, and wound up playing 46, 48, and 53 respectively.  The only Rangers who played all 68 were rookie defense partners Scott Stevens and Dave Shaw, the club’s first and second round draft picks.
     Martin was the Rangers’ leading point getter with 33 goals and 64 assists, for 97 points.  Bellows was 45-51-96, Larmer 51-42-93.
     Rangers, who swept all four home games against Niagara and split in the Falls, played without centers Eagles and Brad Schnurr and all-star defenseman Al MacInnis bruised his thigh in Thursday’s overtime win in Brantford and Schnurr is sidelined with a recurring knee injury.
     Trainer Les Bradley said all three should be ready for the opening of the playoffs, which could be as early as next Friday.
     Although the 44 wins set a team record, Rangers had two other seasons with better winning percentages.  They were .669 this season compared to .759 in 1967-68 when they had a 38-10-6 record and .678 in 1973-74.
     Friday marked the sixth straight game and seventh in the last eight that the Rangers drew over 5,000 fans.  Auditorium director Gib White said that between his record books and his memory, the Rangers have never had such consistently big crowds in the final six weeks of the regular schedule.
     It all started Jan 31 with a first-place battle between Kitchener and the Soo.  Although winter’s worst blizzard pounded the Twin Cities that Sunday, a season-high crowd of 6,088 amazingly showed up for the 6-6 tie.