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KITCHENER, Ont. — Even though the Kitchener Rangers jumped out to a four-goal first period, not a soul inside the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium could erase from memory banks the Rangers' penchant lately for blowing big leads.
So when the Belleville Bulls put together a string of superior shifts early in the second period, there was uneasiness among the capacity crowd of 6,767 at the Memorial Cup semi-final last night.
Sitting on the Kitchener bench, Rangers diminutive dynamo Justin Azevedo sensed the importance of his next shift. So when he hopped over the boards with linemates Matt Halischuk and Nick Spaling, and Spaling forced a turnover in the neutral zone to send Halischuk and Azevedo in alone on a two-player breakaway, Azevedo buried his teammate's pass for his second of three goals in a 9-0 win.
The big-time shift was just another in a stellar junior career for the 5-foot-8, 175-pound Azevedo, who is expected to be chosen today as the Canadian junior player of the year and whose Rangers will meet the Spokane Chiefs in the final tomorrow.
The Kitchener Rangers' Justin Azevedo celebrates his hat trick with teammate Matt Halischuk against the Belleville Bulls during their semi-final Memorial Cup game in Kitchener on Friday. The Rangers won 9-0 to advance to Sunday's final against the Spokane Chiefs. (REUTERS/Mark Blinch)
"He's amazing," Rangers coach and general manager Peter DeBoer said. "As small as he looks on the ice, he's even smaller when you see him off the ice. But he's got the heart of a lion. He just refuses to lose.
"When it's a big game, whether it's the OHL final or tonight, whenever we needed a big goal, not just him, but that entire line has stepped up. They led the way to take our team to a different level that we needed to get to dispatch a real, worthy opponent."
This was the ninth meeting between the Bulls and Rangers in the past 24 days. Kitchener won the OHL final in seven games. Belleville won the round-robin meeting at the Memorial Cup on Wednesday. The Azevedo-Halischuk-Spaling line made sure their team won the next game. They scored six goals and 15 points, including a three-goal, two-assist performance by Azevedo.
"If the game is on the line, I tend to step up my game that much more," Azevedo said. "I had my linemates out there, and without them, any of my success would not be possible."
Good things come in small packages. That has been the case with Azevedo. DeBoer was criticized for selecting the undersize Azevedo 14th overall at the 2004 OHL draft. Back then, he was generously listed at 5 foot 7 and 160 pounds.
The detractors must have forgotten what small, big-hearted players such as Derek Roy and Mike Richards did for the Rangers in their successful run to the 2003 Memorial Cup title.
DeBoer was confident that Azevedo was the type of talent who played bigger than his size and a player who possessed tremendous hockey sense.
"When you see how successful Derek Roy has been [with the Buffalo Sabres], you think, 'I could be like that,'ƒ|" Azevedo said. "Even [Richards], he brought the [Philadelphia] Flyers to the Eastern Conference final. They are outstanding and they work hard every night. It would be nice if I could do something like that."
The local fans call Azevedo the Wizard from West Lorne (near Chatham, Ont.) for his magic with a hockey stick this season. The fourth-year forward already has won the OHL scoring championship, the league championship with his Kitchener teammates and the Red Tilson Trophy as the league's most valuable player. He is determined to add a Memorial Cup championship for the devoted Rangers fans, who chanted "We want the Cup, we want the Cup" late in the game.
Azevedo was overlooked in the past two NHL entry drafts. But after he was beset at different times by a serious ankle injury, hernia surgery and pneumonia in his three previous seasons, he enjoyed a breakout year this season.
He scored 43 goals and 124 points in 67 games and was the first Ranger to win the scoring title since Dwight Foster in 1976-77. In the postseason, Azevedo has a remarkable total of 14 goals and 48 points in 24 games.
The Rangers led 4-0 lead after the opening 20 minutes and 7-0 after two periods. Halischuk scored twice, while Spaling, Mike Duco, Nazem Kadri and Scott Tregunna also checked in with goals. Goaltender Josh Unice made 25 saves for the shutout.
