Kitchener Rangers

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http://www.kitchenerrangers.com/ Official Site

History of the Rangers

The roots of the Kitchener Rangers are traced back to the 1947-1948 hockey season when the franchise was formed as the Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters. In 1960 the "Biltmores" as they were often called became the Guelph Royals. At the end of the 1962-63 season, a local business entrepreneur name Eugene George, was approached by the New York Rangers about moving the team to Kitchener in hopes of building a more stable junior environment.

The team moved into the Kitchener Auditorium for the start of the 1963-1964 season, which had previously been home to the Kitchener Greenshirts and the Kitchener Canucks. The Rangers were successful promoting the team in the community, drawing high attendance despite a poor first season. By 1968 the Rangers were a first place team that had reached the league finals twice.

When the National Hockey League collectively ended sponsorship of junior teams, the New York Rangers then offered the team to Eugene George for $1.00, a token receipt to assume the financial and overall responsibility of the team from then on. The modest George, realizing the community importance of the Kitchener Rangers, instead turned the team over to the community; in essence, to its season ticket subscribers. The Rangers became a publicly owned team. George and fellow colleagues strategically set up a volunteer Directorship, which included key Executives, which still holds true today (among all eligible season ticket subscribers). The Rangers are backboned today by their unique strategy; a 40-person Board of Directors to which 9 Executive positions are elected as key duties including Finances, Policies, Charities, and a Hockey Committee among others.

The Rangers struggled their first three season in the OHA, but finished strong in 1966 despite a 7th place 16-23-9 record. The Rangers won the first two playoff rounds to make it to the OHA finals, but lost 4 games to 1, to the Oshawa Generals, featuring a young Bobby Orr. Kitchener finished in 1st place the next season, but fell to the Hamilton Red Wings in the playoffs. In 1968 the Rangers were first again in the OHA, and won their second consecutive Hamilton Spectator Trophy. Kitchener played in the finals again, losing a very close series 4 games to 3 with a tie, to the eventual Memorial Cup Champions Niagara Falls Flyers.

Kitchener struggled through the decade, posting only two winning seasons. In 1973-74, the Rangers finish 1st in the OHA due to the stellar goalkeeping of Don Edwards, with the league lowest goals against average. Kitchener however lost in the semi-finals in the playoffs. Dwight Foster set the Rangers franchise record for points in a highest during the high scoring late 1970's. Foster scored 60 goals and 83 assists totalling 143 points to be the scoring champion.

The Rangers coached by Orval Tessier finished first place in a highly contested Emms division, despite winning only half its games. The team made a remarkable turnaround from its previous dismal season. The 1981 Rangers were led by 16 year old captain Brian Bellows, and also featured Al MacInnis and goalie Wendell Young.

Kitchener caught fire in the playoffs eliminating the Niagara Falls Flyers and the Windsor Spitfires in the Emms division playoffs, then eliminated the highly favoured Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the league finals, who finished 27 points ahead of Kitchener.

Tessier returned to the Memorial Cup for the fourth time, after playing for the 1953 Barrie Flyers, and coaching the 1972 Cornwall Royals and 1973 Québec Remparts. Kitchener faced off against the Victoria Cougars and the defending champions, the Cornwall Royals in the Memorial Cup played in Windsor, Ontario and the Windsor Arena.

Kitchener lost the first two games 6-3 to Cornwall, and 7-4 to Victoria. The Rangers then posted consecutive victories, 6-4 over the Royals in which Bellows scored a hat trick, and 4-2 over the Cougars. In the finals versus Cornwall, the Rangers fell 5-2 to the Royals who would win their second consecutive Memorial Cup title. The 1981 playoffs were a breakthrough for Kitchener, who would be one of the best teams in the OHL during the 1980's.

Joe Crozier took over the coaching duties after 1981, and Kitchener picked up on the winning note from the previous season. The Rangers won the Emms division again with a much improved record and many players returning, and also added future NHL players Scott Stevens and Mike Hough.

Kitchener earned a first round bye, then eliminated the Spitfires and Greyhounds for the second year in a row in the Emms division playoffs. The Rangers then faced off against the Ottawa 67's coached by Brian Kilrea in the finals, winning the J. Ross Robertson Cup 9 points to 1. Kitchener faced the Portland Winter Hawks and the Sherbrooke Castors in the Memorial Cup series played at the Robert Guertin Arena in Hull, Québec.

Kitchener received a sobering 10-4 loss in game one at the hands of Sherbrooke. The Rangers played much better in game two, defeating Portland 9-2. Brian Bellows scored 11 seconds into the game, setting a Memorial Cup record. In their third game, the Rangers shutout the Castors 4-0, attoning for the previous lopsided loss in game one. The game was very physical, and included a bench-clearing brawl in the second period. Kitchener seemed to be a bit worn out the next night, losing 4-2 to Portland.

The Rangers and the Castors made it to the finals on a better goals for and against total, after all three teams won and lost two games each in the round-robin. The final game, drew 4091 spectators who saw Bellow score a hat trick, leading the Rangers to a 7-4 victory, winning its first Memorial Cup.

Kitchener finished a strong second place in the Emms division after winning the Cup the year before. Kitchener fell in the third round of the playoffs, in the division finals to their rivals, S.S.Marie Greyhounds 8 points to 2. The strong showing of the Rangers over the last three seasons, earned Kitchener the right to host the Memorial Cup in 1984.

Tom Barrett took over coaching duties in 1983. Kitchener posted the best record in the OHL in 1983-84 with 106 points, proving without a doubt they were worthy being chosen to host the Memorial Cup tournament. The Rangers were led by John Tucker as the OHL's most outstanding player, Wayne Presley as the top scoring right winger, and Shawn Burr was the rookie of the year.

Kitchener earned its 3rd straight first round bye, before sweeping the London Knights in the second round. The Rangers avenged last season's loss versus Sault Ste. Marie winning the series 8 points to 6. Kitchener faced the Ottawa 67's in a rematch of the 1982 OHL finals. The Rangers were unable to pull out the victory, losing the series 8 points to 2. The Rangers and 67's would both play in the Memorial Cup, as well as the Kamloops Junior Oilers and the Laval Voisins featuring Mario Lemieux.

Kitchener defeated Laval 8-2 in game one, holding Lemieux scoreless. In game two, Kitchener had an 8-0 lead over Kamloops but narrowly held on to win the game 9-7. Ottawa had also won its first two games. The two teams met in the final game of the round robin, with Kitchener posting a 7-2 victory, to earn a beth in the finals. Ottawa won 7-2 in the semi-finals, then won 7-2 again in a rematch versus Kitchener in the finals.

The loss marked the end of the Rangers four year run at success. Kitchener would rebuild for four seasons, before winning the Emms division regular season title in the 1988-89 season, in which Gus Morschauser was the OHL Goaltender of the Year. Kitchener was upset in the first round of the playoffs by the North Bay Centennials.

The 1989-90 Rangers finished second overall in the Emms division, but used their experience to previal through the playoffs. Kitchener avenged the previous season's loss to North Bay, and earned the second round bye. The Rangers defeated the Niagara Falls Thunder team in the semi-finals, setting up a series against the Leyden division champion Oshawa Generals featuring Eric Lindros in the finals.

Both the Rangers and the Generals were assured a spot in the Memorial Cup as OHL finalists in 1990. The tournament was originally chosen to be hosted by the Dukes of Hamilton at Copps Coliseum before the season started, but when the Dukes finished last overall that season, the OHL chose to send both league finalists instead. The OHL championship series was a very close affair, but Kitchener lost in the seventh game to the Oshawa. Kitchener would face off against Oshawa in the 1990 Memorial Cup, and also rematch against their opponents in the 1984 tournament, both of who had new names, the Kamloops Junior Oilers were now the Kamloops Blazers, and the Laval Voisins were now the Laval Titan.

The 1990 Memorial Cup tournament opened up on May 5th, 1990 with Kitchener facing the Kamloops Blazers. The rematch from six years ago was also a very high scoring game with a back-and-forth score in regualation, with Kitchener winning 8-7 in overtime. In their second game, the fourth game of the tournament, Kitchener beat Laval 5-3.

Similar to 1984, both Ontario-based team were undefeated after two games, and faced each other in the last game of the round-robin. The game was played in front of 11,134 fans, lasted 4 hours 15 minutes into double overtime, with Oshawa winning 5-4. Kitchener then played Laval in the semi-finals. It was a very close game throughout, with Kitchener pulling out a 5-4 victory.

The Rangers would play the Generals in the finals, with 17, 383 fans in attendance. Much like the first game between the two teams, the championship went into double overtime. Kitchener lost again to Oshawa, 4-3.

The remainder of the decade was lacklustre for Kitchener. The team managed three winning seasons with their best coming in 1997. Kitchener reached the third round, but lost to a familiar foe in six games to Oshawa. The Rangers were led through the season by rookie goaltender Shawn Degagne, with the league's best goals against average for a freshman.

The Rangers have had great success at the turnstiles, and being an OHL attendance leader. The team attracted a record 162,000 plus fans in 1999-00, an average of 4,750 per game. In 2001, Peter DeBoer came over from successful years with the Plymouth Whalers to be the coach and general manager of Kitchener.

In 2002-2003 the Rangers were first place overall in the OHL, being the only team with 100 points and winning the Hamilton Spectator Trophy. Kitchener was also one of the top-ranked teams in the country. The team featured five future NHL players, forwards Mike Richards, Petr Kanko, Gregory Campbell, captain Derek Roy and defenceman Steve Eminger, who had been returned from the NHL's Washington Capitals mid-season.

The Rangers defeated S.S.Marie, Guelph and Plymouth in the western conference playoffs, then beat the Ottawa 67's in 5 games to win its third J. Ross Robertson cup, after waiting 21 years from its last. Derek Roy was named the MVP of the playoffs.

The 2003 Memorial Cup was hosted in the Quebec City at the Colisée de Québec. Kitchener faced off versus the host Québec Remparts, QMJHL champions Hull Olympiques, and the Kelowna Rockets from the WHL.

Kitchener went through the round-robin undefeated, beating the Remparts 4-3 in game one, the Olympiques 4-1 in game two, and the Rockets 4-2 in game three. On Sunday, May 25, 2003, the Rangers won their second Memorial Cup title, defeating Hull 6-3.

Steve Bienkowski, the Rangers president & governor, also a former goaltender with the Rangers who played in the 1981 Memorial Cup, was the OHL Executive of the Year for the 2002-03 season.