The Belleville Bulls stamped their ticket to the Memorial Cup Wednesday night, thanks to the Kitchener Rangers doing their job the last week.

No, the Bulls haven't won the Ontario Hockey League title, thus earning a berth in the Memorial Cup that goes with the championship. Instead, Belleville captured the Eastern Conference crown, beating Oshawa 4-1 behind some outstanding play from three former Saginaw Spirit players. More on them in a moment.

First, Kitchener is hosting the Memorial Cup this year, which means the Rangers have an automatic bid to the week-long event. Belleville now will move on to the round-robin tournament after halting Oshawa, no matter what happens in the OHL Finals.

By the way, the Memorial Cup brings together the champions from the OHL, Western Hockey League and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, along with the host team. The four teams battle it out for supremacy of Major Junior A hockey.

Jan Mursak, Nigel Williams and Parker VanBuskirk have helped Belleville battle their way to the Eastern Conference championship.

VanBuskirk, in particular, showed his mettle after coming in for starting goalie Mike Murphy in Game 2 of the series, after Oshawa scored three goals in the first 3:56.

But VanBuskirk turned in a huge performance, blanking the Generals the rest of the way, stopping all 28 shots he saw. That allowed the Bulls to win the game when they scored four second-period goals to prevail 4-3.

Belleville has needed just 15 games on its way to steamrolling to the conference title. The Bulls used five games to take out Peterborough in the first round and swept Barrie in the semifinals before taking out Oshawa.

Mursak, who signed an entry-level contract with the Detroit Red Wings before the start of the season, is making Detroit look like it knew what it was doing, with seven goals and nine assists for 16 points in the playoffs.

Williams, meanwhile, has contributed five goals and five assists for 10 points and, just as important, is plus-7 through Belleville's 13 playoff games.

The knock on Williams in Saginaw was he wasn't responsible enough in his own end, but in Belleville he seems to have turned that around. Perhaps playing on an outstanding team surrounded with quality players has as much to do with that as Williams' performance defensively.

Whatever the case, Williams, who was drafted by Colorado, has with his post-season performance more than likely earned himself a hefty contract from the Avalanche. That will come after the conclusion of Belleville's season, which more than likely will come late in May.

Kitchener is finding a way to win despite the absence of Steve Mason, its No. 1 goaltender, whom the Columbus Blue Jackets signed this year. Mason had arthroscopic surgery Friday to repair a minor tear in a knee, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

The Rangers lead the Soo Greyhounds 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals, with Josh Unice skating into goal to replace Mason. Kitchener has not missed a beat with Unice in net.

But Mason's injury will keep him off the ice for four to six weeks, meaning he won't play in the Memorial Cup, Blue Jackets General Manager Chris MacFarland told the Columbus newspaper. v

Mark Constantine is a writer for The Saginaw News. You may reach him by calling 776-9769.