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| By: Larry Anstett, KW Record - March 29th, 1982 |
| Windsor
– Windsor Spitfires coach Marcel Pronovost believes that the Kitchener
Rangers have the best team in the Ontario Hockey League.
No team dominated Windsor the way Kitchener did this year and Pronovost heaped praise on the Rangers after they advanced to the Emms Division finals Sunday night. Unleashing one of their most explosive and balanced attacks of the year, the Rangers got goals from eight players in a 9-4 romp that completed a four-game sweep of the eight-point semifinal playoff. “I think Kitchener’s got enough depth to go all the way (to the OHL championship),” Pronovost said. “They were just too tough for us and we didn’t have enough manpower to keep up to them. I thought we could have given them a better battle here (Windsor), but it wasn’t to be. We were tired after beating Niagara Falls (in the quarter-finals), but we’ve got no excuses. Kitchener was a much better hockey team.” The Rangers lost their season opener to the Spits but won the last nine games between the two clubs and won all five in Windsor, were they allowed the Spits only nine goals. The Rangers were the only club to beat Windsor at home in the past three months and they knocked them off three times. Against other teams the Spits were 13-0-4. Kitchener has lost only one of 16 games against Windsor in the past two seasons, including four wins and a tie in last year’s Emms Division championship series. Just as impressive is the Rangers’ playoff record going back to last year. The defending league champions have lost only two of 22 games, posting 15 wins and five ties. They’ll now play the winner of the Brantford-Sault Ste. Marie series, which heated up Sunday afternoon when the home-town Alexanders edged the Soo 2-1 on Len Hatchborn’s goal in the first minute of the third period. The Greyhounds lead the series 5-3, with the next game tonight in the Soo and the sixth game in Brantford Wednesday. In Leyden division action, Oshawa Generals shaded Peterborough Petes 5-4 Sunday to take a 4-2 lead while Toronto Marlboros nipped Ottawa 67’s 4-3 Saturday to cut Ottawa’s lead to 4-2. The Rangers fell behind 1-0 early in the game but roared back with four unanswered goals to lead 4-1 after the first period. They were ahead 6-3 after the second, gave up a short-handed goal at 1:59 of the third to make it 6-4 and then put the game away with three in a row. Jeff Larmer, with a goal and four assists, and linemate Grant Martin, with his first two playoff goals, paced Kitchener scorers. Other Rangers markers went to Mike Hough, Al MacInnis, Mike Moher, Kevin Casey, Brian Bellows and Mario Micheli. Larmer, who fired four goals in Friday’s 7-3 win, has scored in all four playoff games and leads the team with seven goals and five assists for 12 points. Mike Pagnello, Gus Green, Craig Muni and Claude Loiselle scored for Windsor. Both clubs were upset with the officiating of referee Bill Prisniak, who called 41 penalties – 21 to Windsor – for a total of 232 minutes. Although the game was chippy and had five fights, the penalty minutes were deceiving because there were 12 10-minute misconducts went to players for not going to the players’ benches during a second-period fight between Mike Eagles of Kitchener and Loiselle. The Rangers again had a wide margin in shots on goal, 50-31, for a series advantage of 191-105.
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