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| By: Larry Anstett, KW Record - March 23rd, 1982 |
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“We’re ready!” coach Joe Crozier announced Monday after the Kitchener Rangers wrapped up a 10 day layoff with a solid practice at the Auditorium, where tonight the Rangers and Windsor Spitfires will launch their eight-point Emms Division semifinal playoff. “We’ve been working on everything,” Crozier said. “I really think the guys are prepared. They know what’s ahead of them and it’s not going to be easy. We’ve got a couple of series to go (to the Memorial Cup tournament) and we gotta keep winning.” This is the year the Rangers have put it all together because it could be a long time before they build another Cup contender and feature such dazzling stars as Brian Bellows, Jeff Larmer, and Grant Martin. But before they start thinking too far ahead to another berth in the Canadian final – where they lost 5-2 to the Cornwall Royals last spring, the Rangers have a tough job at hand. They have to repeat as Ontario Hockey League champions and only three clubs in the last 32 years have pulled off back-to-back triumphs. The Spitfires have their own ideas of capturing the OHL title after a quarter-final upset victory over the Niagara Falls Flyers, who finished 17 points ahead of Windsor in the standings. “It was a team effort against Niagara and we’ll have to get the same thing against Kitchener,” Spits’ coach Marcel Pronovost said. “Kitchener’s well balanced and they’ve got a lot of depth. It’s possible they’ve got a little more bench strength than we do. They can throw out three or four solid lines and their defence and goaltending is solid.” “We have to be very much the underdogs. It’ll take a lot of work and breaks to beat the Rangers.” Crozier agreed, the Rangers have to be considered favorites. “There must be a reason why they finished where they did and why we finished where we did. There has to be a difference in the two clubs.” Rangers won five of six games against Windsor, scored 53 more goals and allowed 97 fewer. The lone Windsor victory was in the first game of the season between the two clubs. Spitfires marched into Kitchener Oct 23 and ended the Rangers 11 game unbeaten streak with a 5-3 triumph. However, regular-season statistics often mean nothing in the playoffs as Cinderella teams inevitably surface, and Crozier is well aware of that. “These guys aren’t going to be easy,” Crozier said of the Spits, who have the best home record in the league in the past three months. They’ve lost only one of the 18 games racking up 13 wins and four ties. The lone defeat was a 4-3 decision to the Kitchener February 18th. “In the two playoff games I saw Windsor play, they were very, very disciplined,” Crozier said. “They went up and down the ice, picked up their wings and didn’t give out too many chances. Their defense cluttered up the front of the net and threw the puck out quickly. They also got great goaltending form (Kevin) Hamlin.” Whiel the Rangers set a team record for most wins in a season with their 44-21-3 chart, the Spits finished 22-42-4. However, Windsor’s record was deceiving Spits set a league record by losing 20 straight games from November 6th to December 18th, but after that they finished the schedule with a 14-16-4 mark. Rangers beat Windsor in five games (four wins, one tie) in last season’s Emms Division championship. Playoff Schedule: Game 1 in Kitchener - Tuesday,
March 23
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