WELL-DESERVED - Kitchener Rangers' captain Brian Bellows hold the John Ross Robertson Cup for Rangers goalie Wendell Young as Kevin Casey (left) and Brad Schnurr (right) look on after the Rangers beat Ottawa 67s 4-1 Sunday to win the OHL championship.

          OTTAWA – Ottawa coach Brian Kilrea had a quick explaination as to how his 67s could beat the Kitchener Rangers three out of four times in the regular schedule but not beat them once in five games in the Ontario Hockey League finals.
     “During the season (Brian) Bellows and (Jeff) Larmer didn’t play in two of the games.  They played in all the games this time.  That’s the difference.  They’ll both be superstars in the NHL.
     The two dazzling linemates connected for 13 of the Rangers’ 21 playoff goals against Ottawa.  The line – which had Kevin Casey substituting at center for the suspended Grant Martin – accounted for all four goals in Sunday’s 4-1 romp and scored 42 of the Rangers’ 71 goals in 15 playoff games.
     Rangers’ lone regular-season victory over Ottawa ccame the final time the teams met.  Bellows and Larmer were both in the lineup for the first time against Ottawa and – looking back now – the result was almost predictable.  Bellows and Larmer both scored twice in a 5-4 Kitchener win.
     Before the championship series started, Kilrea said the difference would be in the two big lines:  Bellows, Martin and Larmer, and Ottawa’s Moe Lemay, Jeff Vaive and Don McLaren.  “Whatever line commands will win the series,” Kilrea said.
     He was right.  McLaren, an ex-Ranger, played well for the 67s, but Lemay and Vaive had a disappointing series.  The Bellows line was spectacular even without Martin, as Bellows and Larmer played harder to fill the gap and Casey was an admirable substitute.  With Mike Moher suspended the last two games, coach Joe Crozier generally used three lines instead of four and the balanced Rangers didn’t seem to suffer from the player losses.
     “Bellows and Larmer almost sunk us themselves,” said McLaren, a Kitchener native who was Ottawa’s top playoff marksman with 18 goals in 17 games.
     Larmer led all playoff scorers, scoring in 14 of 15 games for 21 goals.  He added 14 assists for 35 points while Bellows had 16 goals and 13 assists for 29 points.
     “We thought we’d be able to give them a tougher series,” McLaren said.
     “I don’t know if they played that well or we played that bad.  I think that we had a bit of a letdown after the Oshawa series (which went a gruelling seven games).  It was really psychological.  Everybody got up for that one – the players, coaches, fans and media.  We had bigger crowds for that series than we did for the finals.”
     “We didn’t want to lose against Oshawa because everybody was calling them goons and we didn’t want to lose to goons.  We wouldn’t have been proud.  But when we got up against Kitchener, maybe we figured it wouldn’t be too bad if we lost to them because Kitchener was supposed to have “THE team.”
 Rangers outscored Ottawa 21-12 in the series but would have won by bigger margins if it hadn’t been for 67s goalie Jim Ralph, who almost single-handedly kept his rookie-laden team in contention during earlier losses of 4-1, 5-3 and 4-3 and a 4-4 tie.
     After Sunday’s game, in which the Rangers outshot Ottawa 40-29, Kitchener coach Joe Crozier asked Ralph if he’d join the Rangers for the Memorial Cup tournament.  Each club is allowed to pick up two goaltenders, but no forwards or defencemen.
     “He was crying when I adked him.  I didn’t really get an answer,” Crozier said.
     Ralph later said he wasn’t sure if he’d be going up to the Chicago Black Hawks for their NHL playoff against the Vancouver Canucks, who lead the best-of-seven series 2-1.
     “If I don’t get the call, then I’ll make a decision,” Ralph said.  “It’s a chance in a lifetime to go to the Memorial Cup, but in a way, I wouldn’t feel that I belonged or that I deserved it.”
     Wendell Young has played the last 26 games in the Kitchener goal with rookie Darryl Boudreau as his back-up.
     “Kitchener has a big club, they do everything well and they’re the class of the league,” Kilrea said.  “I hope they bring the Cup to Ontario.”
     The OHL has won only one of the last five Cups.  Cornwall Royals – then of the Quebec League – ruled the last two years.  Peterborough Petes of the OHL won in 1979 and New Westminster Bruins of the Western League took the previous two titles.
     The Rangers were greeted by about 150 enthusiastic fans when their chartered airplane arrived at Waterloo-Wellington airport at 1:10 am.  The Rangers’ mascot, Ranger Rooster, was in full costume as he stood at the bottom of the ramp and, as the players disembarked, waved a sign reading: Welcome Home Champs.