THWARTED - BUT NOT FOR LONG
Ottawa-67s goalie Jim Ralph thwarts Kitchener Rangers captain Brian Bellows here, but Bellows scored on two other chances to help the Rnagers to a 5-3 win before 7,549 fans - the second largest crowd in the team's 19-year history.  With a 7-1 lead in the eight-point OHL final.  Rangers need only a tie Sunday in Ottawa to advance to the Memorial Cup. (Front Page)

    The most awesome team in Kitchener Rangers’ 19-year history – a team full of superstars, brilliant rookies, solid journeymen and colourful characters – may have played its final game at the Auditorium.
     If the likes of Brian Bellows, Jeff Larmer, Grant Martin, Al MacInnis and others never again have the chance to dazzle Twin City hockey fans, then Friday’s game was the perfect send-off for a club whose talents may be unmatched in Kitchener for years to come.
     The 7,549 fans came to cheer the Rangers to victory and have a good time in the process.
     The Auditorium rocked with singing, hand-clapping, and ovations from start to finish as the fans enjoyed themselves as seldom before.
     Rangers responded by scoring two unanswered third-period goals for a 5-3 victory that all but clinched a second straight Ontario Hockey League championship and another berth in the Memorial Cup national tournament that beings next weekend in Hull, Que.
     To get there, Rangers need only a tie in Ottawa Sunday night in the fifth game of the eight-point series, which the Rangers lead 7-1.
     Only the most incredible Ottawa comeback – and a more incredible Kitchener collapse – will prevent the Rangers from capturing the series.
     Ottawa would have to win four straight games, a nearly impossible feat considering that the Rangers have lost only four of their last 37 games and one of their last 19 home contests.  Even with inspirational forwards like Grant Martin and Mike Moher out of the lineup Friday, they still had enough depth and power to dominate the ‘67s and outshoot them 48-21.
     “If this was our last game here, then it was quite a way to go,” Larmer said.
     Larmer and Bellows – perhaps the most dangerous scoring duo the Rangers have ever had – fired two goals each, giving Larmer 20 goals and Bellows 15 in 14 playoff games.  Bellows had scored two goals in each of the last three games.
     The two linemates have terrorized Ottawa for 11 of Kitchener’s 17 goals in the series.
     MacInnis potted the other Ranger marker while stalwart defence partner Robert Savard contributed three assists.  Ex-Ranger Don McLaren, with his 18th of the playoffs, Adam Creighton and Moe Lemay replied for Ottawa.  The slumping Lemay led OHL scorers during the regular season with 68 goals in 62 games, but he hadn’t scored in give games prior to Friday.
     “We thought the series would be close, but if you look at the games – 4-4,4-1, 4-2 – Ottawa’s been in it,” Bellows said.
     “I think one of the big differences is experience.  We were here last year.  We didn’t have the same offence we have this year, so we had to play a defensive game.  This year we’ve got both.”
     “I didn’t know how much better (than Ottawa) Kitchener would be,” ‘67s coach Brian Kilrea said.
     “Right now, they’re an awful lot better.  I’ll be disappointed if we don’t win at least one game.  On Sunday we’ll see how much pride this team has.”

     “Tonight, Kitchener was better than us from start to finish, but (goalie) Jim (Ralph) held us in there.  When it was 3-3, we might have stolen a win had we got some breaks, but we didn’t.”
     If 67s were going to get a break, it would have come at 4:59 of the final period with Rangers leading 4-3.  Darcy Roy had a clear-cut breakaway on Wendell Young, but Young’s glove hand flashed out like a lightning bolt to steal Roy’s thunder.
     Ottawa led 3-2 early in the second period before MacInnis got the Rangers rolling at 6:43.  MacInnis voted by the coaches as having the hardest shot in the league, showed why he deserved the honor when, from just inside the blueline, he drove one of his patented bombs past Ralph with each team playing two men short.
     Larmer sent Kitchener ahead at 4:41 of the third when he converted his own rebound on a power play and Bellows finished off Ottawa when he scooped Savard’s rebound into the open side at 12:32.
     The game was much tamer than Wednesday’s brawling affair and had only one fight – if you could call it that.

     The 7,549 fans who jammed every nook and cranny in the Auditorium Friday night formed the second largest crowd in Kitchener Rangers’ 19-year history.
     The official count was only 123 fewer than the 7,672 fans who showed up 14 years ago, on March 22, 1968, to watch a playoff game against Toronto Marlboros.
     The only other time Rangers drew more than 7,500 fans was in the 1974 playoffs when 7,544 witnessed a match against the Peterborough Petes.
     Friday was the 13th straight game Rangers attracted more than 5,000 fans and the sixth time they’ve drawn more than 6,000.
 
 

     Kitchener Rangers’ emotions ran the gamut Friday when it was all over and the Rangers were eating chocolate cake from coach Joe Crozier’s eighth wedding anniversary, Crozier said: “I feel better, but it doesn’t mend the wound.”
     A 5-3 win over Ottawa 67s took some of the sting out of a suspension issued to right winger Mike Moher earlier in the day.
     League commissioner Dave Branch suspended Moher and Ottawa forward Mike James for the rest of the Ontario Hockey League championship series over incidents in the Rangers’ 4-3 win in Ottawa Wednesday.
     Branch said he’ll review the suspensions once the series is over and he may reinstate the player whose team advances to the Memorial Cup tournament starting next weekend in Hull, Que.
     James was give a five-minute major for highsticking Moher in the mouth on a faceoff in the second period.  After teammate Mario Michieli went after James, Moher fought with Doug Stewart and then was ejected from the game for not settling down in the penalty box, where several Rangers had to restrain him from going after James.
     Branch, who attended the game, said two other factors contributed to Moher’s suspension.  He said Moher went out of his way to fight Alan Hepple at the end of the first period and he had been warned previously about getting into any more trouble.  Moher has led the league in penalties the last three seasons and has been suspended by Branch more times than anybody else.
     “I realize Moher had been high-sticked by James, whose actions were totally uncalled for, but at any rate, Moher’s conduct left a lot to be desired,” Branch said.
     Wednesday’s game got out of hand in the second period, in which there were six fights and 28 penalties, and Branch said he cracked down in an effort to restore peace to the OHL’s showcase series.
     “I had to do what I felt was in the best interests of the league,” Branch said.  “To suggest that I was picking on any one team is not the case whatsoever.”
     Rangers were furious over the suspension, with Crozier calling it “a joke.”  Rangers president Bob Ertel met with Branch before the start of Friday’s game but Ertel wouldn’t comment on what was said.  “I’d rather not say anything until I cool down,” Ertel said.
     Branch said Ertel asked if the OHL commissioner had the power to suspend a player when the referee didn’t give the player a penalty that carried a suspension.
     “Yes, it’s within my jurisdiction,” Branch said.
     “There’s a section in the National Hockey League rules – which govern the OHL – that deals with supplementary discipline.  Any league executive – other than the team governors – can file a report to the commissioner if he feels the incident warrants investigation.  In this case, I was the league official.”
     Branch said the Ontario Hockey Association, under which the OHL operates, can consult with Branch on suspensions and even add to them.
     “But in 99 percent of the cases, all suspensions come from myself,” Branch said.