Soo Greyhounds' Wayne Groulx (9) and Steve Graves (14) combine for
a 4-4 tie against the Kitchener Rangers

     SAULT STE. MARIE – Jeff Larmer was growling when he left the Kitchener Rangers dressing room Friday.
     “That was so stupid, so bloody stupid.  You don’t even do that in pee-wee hockey,” he said.
     Larmer was the star of the night with a goal and two assists.  But he couldn’t savor his perfomance because the Rangers – despite controlling most of the game – suffered one of their worst collapses of the year and had to settle for a stunning 4-4 tie with Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds before 4,182 fans.
     The Greyhounds fired two goals – both with their netminder on the bench – in the last two minutes and got the equalizer with only 18 seconds left.
     The Rangers now lead the eight Ontario Hockey League Emms Division fianl 5-1 with the next game here Sunday night and game five in Kitchener Tuesday.
     “Just put that down to junior hockey,” Soo coach Terry Crisp said.
     “Kitchener had control of the game – no problem.  All of the sudden, bing-bing.  We get two shots and two goals.  Now it gives us new life.”
     “Let’s be honest, it meant a hell of a lot more to us than to Kitchener.  If we lose, we’re in deep trouble.”
     “It’s a shame,” said Larmer, who was still shaking his head an hour after the game.
     “We would have put them right out of the series, if we had won.  They would have been so depressed on Sunday that all we would have had to have done was to have shown up for the game.”
     Unbeaten in their last 19 OHL playoff matches, the Rangers handled the Greyhounds with much the same control as they showed in the first two games in Kitchener where the Rangers won 6-2, and 6-1.
     Only twice did the Soo have the Rangers on the run, and that was for a total of only about six minutes.
     The first time was at the end of the first period, when the Greyhounds scored at 17:50 to tie it 1-1.  The Rangers dominated the second and surged ahead with what appeared to be an untouchable 4-1 lead.
     Even when the Greyhounds scored at 7:12 of the third to make it 4-2, the Rangers still seemed headed for victory as the sluggish Hounds gave no indication of being able to rally.
     Rangers center Grant Martin, widely regarded as the league’s best face-off man, lost the draw inside the Rangers blueline at 18:15.  Soo defencemen Jim Pavese drilled a slapshot that appeared to hit a stick and rocketed past Kitchener goalie Wendell Young.
     Moments after the face-off at center ice, Crisp again pulled John Vanbiesbrouck form the Soo ne.  The Rangers got the puck in the Soo end, but couldn’t get a good shot on the empty cage.
     The Hounds roaded back.  There was a loose puck in the Kitchener end and Ranger defenceman Al MacInnis, who had played a strong game, attempted to rap the puck around the boards and out of the Rangers zone.  It was a weak shot stopped by Dirk Rueter at the blueline.
     Rueter fed it into the corner to Ken Latta.  Suddenly, the puck was in front of the net and Wayne Groulx directed it though a maze of players inot the far corner past Young.
     “I would have to say it (scoring the two late goals_ was our game plan,” Crisp said.  “But you guys (reporters) saw the game.  I can’t give you that kind of crap.”
     Larmer has scored in all seven playoff games and leads the Rangers with 11 goals and nine assists for 20 points.
     MacInnis, Mike Eagles, and Brian Bellows had the other Ranger goals with Bellows adding two assists.  Richard Beauine and Terry Tait rounded out Soo’s scoring.
     Larmer and Bellows struck in the first 1½ minutes of the second period to send the Rangers ahead 3-1 and apparently killed the momentum the Soo picked up late in the first period.
     MacInnis scored on a power play at 10:12 as the rebound from his point shot went in off Rueter’s skate and it appeared the Rangers were on their way to a series sweep.