Rogers OHL Championship Series kicks off on Wednesday

By Aaron Bell

Don’t expect the Kitchener Rangers or Belleville Bulls to be caught looking past the next two weeks.

Both teams will play in the MasterCard Memorial Cup tournament that starts on May 16 in Kitchener, but they admit they still have a lot of work to do before then and both plan on entering the tournament as the 2008 Ontario Hockey League champions.

To do that, they need to win the Rogers OHL Championship Series for the J. Ross Robertson Cup, which opens on Wednesday in Kitchener (7:30 p.m. on Rogers TV and the OHL Action Pak). The series shifts to Belleville for Game 2 on Friday (7:15 p.m. on Cogeco and the OHL Action Pak) before heading back to Kitchener for Game 3 on Sunday (5:00 p.m. on Rogers Sportsnet).

“I don’t think anyone is thinking ahead about the Cup,” said Rangers’ captain Matt Pepe. “All year we’ve been a team that has taken it one game at a time. The task at hand right now is the finals and the Belleville Bulls and we’re pretty focused on that.”

For the Bulls, their berth in the OHL finals came with an invitation to play in the national championship tournament for the second time in franchise history. But their captain doesn’t expect his team to look past the Championship Series either.

“It would mean a lot to go in through the front door,” said Matt Beleskey, the Bulls’ second round pick in 2004. “You wouldn’t want to go into the Memorial Cup on a losing streak. We’re trying not to think about the Memorial Cup right now and just think about the OHL final. That’s what we want at this point.”

Both teams enjoyed record setting regular seasons. The Rangers finished first overall in the OHL this season, winning the Hamilton Spectator Trophy with a team record 53 wins and 110 points. The Bulls finished second overall and won the Eastern Conference regular season title with a team record 48 wins and 102 points.

They have both cruised through the playoffs as well. The Rangers swept the Plymouth Whalers and Sarnia Sting before knocking the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds out of the Rogers Western Conference Championship Series in five games to claim the Wayne Gretzky Trophy. The Bulls beat the Peterborough Petes in five games and the Barrie Colts in four games before beating the Oshawa Generals in five games for the Rogers Eastern Conference Championship Series and the Bobby Orr Trophy.

“We’re very excited to be in the finals,” said Rangers’ coach and GM Peter DeBoer. “It’s the second time in the past five years that we’ve had the fortune of playing in the finals and there is nothing like it at this time of year. The eyes of the junior hockey world are on us. There are only six teams left playing across Canada and to be one of them is a real privilege.”

DeBoer also guided the Rangers to OHL and Memorial Cup championships in 2003 and said that they expected to meet up with the Bulls before the tournament opens in two weeks.

“I think it’s appropriate that the two best teams during the regular season in the Ontario Hockey League are playing in the final and are going to be representing Ontario in the Memorial Cup,” said DeBoer, who guided the Rangers to wins in both regular season meetings between the two teams. “It’s an exciting time of year for our staff and our players and our community here in Kitchener. Like Belleville, we’re all looking forward to Wednesday night and Game 1.”

There isn’t a lot to separate these teams. The Rangers scored 289 goals in the regular season and allowed 174. The Bulls scored 280 and allowed 175. One of them will lose more playoff games in this series than they both have combined to this point.

“It’s an exciting opportunity and challenge for our team,” said Bulls’ GM and coach George Burnett, who will coach in his second Memorial Cup after guiding the Guelph Storm to the OHL championship and an appearance in the championship game of the tournament in 1998. “Kitchener has had an outstanding season and there is tremendous excitement in our community and around our team at this time. I know that our team has worked very hard and competed hard all season long hoping to get to this particular point and having the chance to challenge for a league championship. We’re anxious to get started Wednesday night.”

Both teams have reached the final series while missing important pieces of their lineup. The Rangers lost the services of goaltender Steve Mason in the semi-finals against the Greyhounds while Bulls’ star Shawn Matthias has missed the entire playoff run with mono. Both players helped Canada win the gold medal at the World Junior Championships but have been reduced to spectators when the finals start on Wednesday.

“Injuries are a part of the playoff run and the longer you go, the more injuries you are going to have,” DeBoer said. “No one escapes the injury bug come this time of year, especially when you are three rounds deep and having played three real tough opponents. I think the key is how you manage it and how you re-focus and how you use your depth. We’ve had injury adversity all year here with (Nick) Spaling out with mono and (Matt) Halischuk with a high ankle sprain and a handful of guys gone for the World Junior tournament and now with Mason out. I think that we’ve kind of become accustomed to it and it’s not really a crutch or an excuse anymore. The guys just kind of put their heads down and keep working.”

Meanwhile, the Bulls’ offence has ticked along despite missing Matthias, an elite scorer.

“Shawn is obviously a huge part of our club and we don’t have one player that will replace Shawn,” Burnett said. “But losing him and P.K. (Subban) at Christmastime and some significant injuries at that time and later in the year – our team collectively has been energized by the opportunity. Young guys get to move up the ladder. Other veteran guys that are third, fourth or even fifth year guys are getting the chance to maybe do things that they’ve only done part time in the past. I think one of the keys to our success this year is that we’ve really relied on a team game, pretty sound team defence and great goaltending. I think we have a very unselfish group of people that are willing to do what’s asked of them by their coaches to the best of their ability to compete and find ways to get through difficult circumstances.”

The Bulls expect this series against Kitchener to be their toughest test of the season to date.

“The Kitchener Rangers have a lot of speed,” Beleskey said. “They forecheck really hard and they’re always right on your D. We’ve got to be prepared for a hard working, hard forechecking team. They have a lot of offence. They had the leading scoring this season (in Justin Azevedo). We just have to be prepared for them, which I think we are, and just be ready to go.”

DeBoer expects this series to present some different challenges than they faced in the first three rounds.

“I think it’s going to be a real skating series,” DeBoer said. “I think you are going to have on display two teams that skate and move the puck very well. You’ve got the big ice in Belleville. I’m predicting that this is going to be a lightning fast series with a lot of transition and a lot of speed. It should be a lot of fun to watch.”

Photo: Aaron Bell / OHL