HULL, Que. – It was late in the final game of the Ottawa series when winger Dave Nicholls broke in alone on 67’s goaltender Jim Ralph, now a member of the Ontario Hockey League champion Kitchener Rangers.
     A quick deke provided the opening and Nicholls was about to perform some theatrics in celebration of his third goal of the playoffs.
     But alas, Nicholls’ shot hit the left goalpost and the former Belleville Bull was left wondering what he had to do to break his scoring slump.
     The muscular 18-year-old is still concerned about the drought as he heads into the opening game of the Memorial Cup playdowns against the Sherbrooke Beavers tonight.
     With only two goals in 15 games, Nicholls is lagging well back of his regular season pace.  He had 26 goals with the expansion Bulls before arriving to the Twin Cities via the trade route.
     However, he had trouble adjusting, and agonized through a seven-game scoreless streak before popping in nine goals late in the season to finish with a respectable total of 35.
     Nicholls has been playing with center Mike Eagles and Mike Hough but he switched to a line with Kevin Casey and Mike Moher this past week and is hoping to solve his scoring slump in the most important series in Rangers history.
     “I’ve been told I’m not shooting enough,” Nicholls siad.  “I know that’s my problem and I hope to do something about it this week.”
     Nicholls feels he has been getting enough scoring opportunities.  He should have at least four goals in the playoffs but had one called back in the Sault series where referee Jim Lever disallowed a legitimate goal in a Ranger victory at the Auditorium.
     Ralph, picked up by the Rangers this past week, frustrated more Kitchener players than Nicholls during that one-sided five-game OHL final.  Little wonder he’s an important member of the Chicago Blackhawks organization today.
     At 39 Tony Esposito’s time is limited.  The Hawks backup Murray Bannerman might not be around much longer either.
     “I think I’m in a good position,” said Ralph, who was drafted by the Hawks last year.  “Esposito has trouble with his eyes and in a game this year and had to be taken out and his future doesn’t look good.”
     Looking back on the Ranger series, Ralph thinks the key game was the first one when defencemen Scott Stevens scored the tying goal in a 4-4 tie with a little over three minutes to play to give the Rangers the home-ice advantage.
     Talking about the 200-pound Stevens, the Rangers have a habit of teasing him unmercifully, “One of these times, Scott is going to turn on us,” said winger Jeff Larmer.  “If he ever does, there could be a mass funeral.”
     Darryl Boudreau, who will back up goaltender Wendell Young in game one against the Beavers, is a budding businessman in a landscaping company once operated by his grandfather.  Darryl, who turned 18 Friday, quit school to join brother Dave in D & D Landscaping of Kitchener.
     But though it’s a busy time in the landscaping business the Memorial Cup comes first.
     An enterprising young man, Boudreau isn’t allowing the hours to idly slip away here in Hull.  He’s one of the regular card players on the team, along with Hough, Dave Shaw, Stevens, Nicholls, Al MacInnis and one or two others.
     Poker is the name of the game and after an early-afternoon workout at the Robert Guertin Arena and a team meeting at 3 o’clock Friday afternoon, the big game started.
     The Rangers ran into the Portland Winter Hawks for the first time Friday.  The Hawks worked out immediately after the Rangers and MacInnis had a good chat with defence star Gary Nylund, who could go No. 1 in the NHL draft this June ahead of Kitchener’s superstar Brian Bellows.
     Is Nylund big?  Well, Ranger winger Mario Michieli, a 6-foot-3, 200 pounder was standing with MacInnis and Nylund and look like the skinny kid on the bench.
     MacInnis had met Nylund at the national junior training camp in Minnesota last Decemeber.  Nylund made the Canadian squad that won the world championship.  MacInnis didn’t.
     Bellows also attended that national camp but had to leave because of the separated shoulder he suffered in November.  When Bellows and Nylund play opposite each other Sunday night, it will be a most interesting matchup.
     The Winter Hawks – a big, disciplined but not particularly fast team – are staying at the same Sheraton Le Marquis hotel as the Rangers.  Some of the Rangers don’t think that’s a good idea but they are on the second and third floors, the Hawks on the eighth.
     “Besides, members of the media and a large contingent of touring Toronto schoolgals are serving as a buffer zone on the fourth floor.”
     Unfortunately, the swift-skating Sherbrooke Beavers, who apparently would love to be in on the action, are staying in a motel somewhere on the outskirts of Hull.
     The bar at Le Marquis is out of bounds for the Rangers of course.  That only makes sense.  But word drifted up the elevator shaft from Rangers headquarters that coach Joe Crozier would prefer the reporters and broadcasters quench their thirst at distant watering holes so as not to lead the OHL champions astray.
     Crozier’s request was met with a resounding boo, the feeling being that the Rangers are mature enough to look after themselves.