Espo Returns; Bruins Tie, 2-2

Center Gregg Sheppard and teammate Rick Middleton fired in a pair of goals only two minutes apart in the second period last night to lift the Boston Bruins into a 2-2 deadlock with the visiting New York Rangers in an NHL exhibition contest.

The Bruins had spent the week encouraging their fans to come out to the Garden for a look at ex-Hub heroes Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Carol Vadnais, but it was two unheralded young Rangers who were worth watching.

Don Murdoch took advantage of a five on three power play opportunity late in the first period to give the visitors the early lead. Nine minutes into the next frame, Ron Greschner broke in on Boston's Gerry Cheevers to notch a short-handed tally.

Boston rallied for the tying scores before the period ended, and the two teams battled scorelessly through the final 20 minutes to forge the 2-2 tie.

Cheevers made 31 stops in goal for the Hub, icemen, while his New York counterpart, Gilles Gratton, blocked 24 Boston shots.

In other area sports news, the Red Sox took yesterday off in preparation for the final series of a disappointing season, a three-game set which starts tonight against the Baltimore Orioles. Manager Don Zimmer has tabbed Rick Wise (13-11), Reggie Cleveland (9-9), and the ageless Luis Tiant (21-12) for the last three starts of the year.

With a good advance ticket sale, based on a long forgotten idea the Red Sox would be gunning for the Eastern Division championship, the team hopes to go over the 1.9 million home attendance mark by Sunday.