Superman wears red, white and blue with the number 31 on his back when he comes to the rescue in Cornwall. Rick Tabaracci is the Pittsburgh Penguins' goalie of the future but the puckstopper of the present for the Royals who are confident he'll backstop them to their most successful playoff showing in eight seasons of Ontario Hockey League competition.

The Tabaracci story starts with numbers. When Cornwall picked him in the first round, fifth overall, of the 1986 OHL Priority Selection, it marked the highest selection ever for a netminder. In his first two seasons in the OHL, the Royals won a total of fifty-eight games and Tabaracci was between the pipes for fifty-six of those victories. During that period he logged more minutes protecting the Cornwall cage than any other goalie in the league. Last season he was voted to the 1st All-Star team, was the OHL's nominee for the Cooper CHL Top Goaltender Award and finished third in ballotting for the Red Tilson trophy which is awarded to the league's most outstanding player.

"But I always wanted to be a goalie and finally got the chance one day in practice..."

All of this has been accomplished by a young man who never donned hockey's version of the "tools of ignorance" until he was twelve years old. Tabaracci fired pucks as a leftwinger instead of stopping them during his minor hockey days in Toronto. He played with fellow OHL'ers Bryan Marchment of Belleville, Derek Langille of North Bay and current Royals teammate Paul Cain who was his center. "My parents didn't want me to make the switch," says the soft spoken but articulate 20-year-old.

"They wanted me to learn how to skate and learn the fundamentals. But I always wanted to be a goalie and finally got the chance one day in practice, and everything took off from there."

Developing his natural athletic ability as a forward helped rather than hindered Tabaracci's blossoming career when it came time to put the pads on. Royals coach Orval Tessier calls Tabaracci one of the best skating goalies he's ever seen during his lifelong association with the game and another spinoff benefit from playing forward is that it allows Tabaracci to think like a shooter. "I feel maybe, because I was a forward, I have a little insight into where the play is going to go. Maybe I can hit a guy at centre ice with a pass or when he's circling around the blueline rather than waiting for him to come and pick up the puck. That helps because handling the puck is such a big part of the game now for goalies."

Tabaracci spent a season with the Markham Waxers of the defunct Provincial Junior "A" Hockey League as a 16-year-old and when he arrived in Cornwall could've been excused for wondering if the main industry in town was a rubber plant instead of a pulp and paper mill. You've heard the line about the netminder who saw more rubber than a dead cat on the 401? Well, Tabaracci was pelted with more rubber in his rookie season than a tabby whose nine lives all expired on the asphalt.

The Penguins made Tabaracci their second selection, 26th overall in the 1987 entry draft.

The Royals finished in 6th place in the Leyden Division in Tabaracci's freshman campaign, surrendering 369 goals, and his statistics were far from flattering if you unwisely judged him solely on his 5.20 goals against average. "It helped build character having a rough year like that," recalls Tabaracci whose first regular season start turned into a nightmarish 15-2 loss in Ottawa. "Facing all that rubber definitely did a lot for me. Sometimes they say it's better off for a goalie to come in on a strong team because he looks better. But I don't think the looks in the first two years and getting drafted is what's going to do it for you as far as making the NHL. It's the long run that counts, whether you learned and whether you can play, and I believe the rookie experience really helped me a lot."

The Penguins made Tabaracci their second round selection, 26th overall in the 1987 entry draft. They may have been swayed by reflex action alone, a laser glove flash, lightning leg kicks and catlike scrambling ability but what they'll eventually receive is a finished product who's learned how to play the position.

"THe attitude of Tabby as far as the work ethic is concerned is what's made him such an outstanding pro prospect," relates Tessier. "He's probably the hardest working guy in practice and you practically have to kick him off the ice. He's instilled a whole pile of confidence in an awful lot of people on our club. When they make a mistake they know he's going to stop the puck.Even when he's not stopping the puck, when it's in our end and near him, he controls the whole play with his glove or his stick. He talks to his teammates constantly and moves the puck to them in the right place at the right time."

Tabaracci's first sampling of pro experience amounted to no more than a ten day courtesy call on Pittsburgh. But this past September he found himself involved in a four-way battle with incumbent Steve Guenette, newly acquired Wendell Young and farmhand Frank Pietrangelo for the Penguins two, big league, red light prevention jobs. "They said all along if I wasn't going to be the starter, the best goalie in camp, I wouldn't stay and that's understandable."

The Penguins' brass, who should know a good goalie when they see one considering Tony Esposito is the general manager and Eddie Johnston is his assistant, never really told their future employee what to work on when they sent him down. But Tabaracci has pretty well figured out all the angles himself. "It's a lot more anticipation in the NHL. The game is quicker so you have to be able to read the play to stay square with the puck. Those are the types of things I'll be improving because, like I say, if you give those guys a couple of inches they're going to take it."

Kilrea has no inhibitions about ranking Tabaracci right up there with the best the OHL has ever seen.

Brian Kilrea, the cigar chomping coach of the Ottawa 67's, has watched Tabaracci develop his immense raw talent into a technically sound, puck blocking machine. "That's a tough question," admits the 67's boss. "But you have to rate him with the best because he's that good, he's that quick and he's fearless. Sometimes when he makes an unbelievable save you figure it'll be easy pickings on the rebound. But he's still in position to make the rebound save. It's because of that he's going to make it in Pittsburgh. I think they probably felt one more year of regular play in junior would be best for him to help withstand the tremendous pressure of the NHL. I think that's why they sent him back, not because of his ability right now." Kilrea, whose national capital squad battles it's Leyden Division rival from Cornwall a dozen times during the regular season, is of the opinion the Royals, with Tabaracci between the pipes, must be considered a legitimate threat to win it all this year in the OHL. He'll get no argument from his counterpart in Peterborough. Petes coach Dick Todd says, "The Royals have some quality forwards, outstanding defencemen and now an outstanding goalie back. Anytime you have a combination like that you're going to be very competitive."

If you had to find fault with Tabaracci you might pinpoint his abrasive on-ice behaviour whic resulted in over 70 minutes worth of penalities in his first two seasons and a slugfest with OHL heavyweight champ Tie Domi of the Petes in his first game back this season. Old habits, such as dropping the gloves and extra- curricular body contact, are hard to break for a former forward. But hey, even Superman has a chink in his armour, doesn't he? OHL shooters might be advised to dust their sticks with a little kryptonite this season for when they bear down on number 31 wearing the Royals red, white and blue.