Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 8, 1993 TAG: 9310080028
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Now it's time for the Roanoke Express to go to work on the ice.
After five months of off-ice labor - picking a coach, selecting a nickname, securing an NHL affiliation, recruiting players, selling tickets and promoting the team - Roanoke's new East Coast Hockey League expansion franchise finally gets down to business with pucks, pads and sticks Saturday when its preseason training camp opens at the Roanoke Civic Center.
Coach Frank Anzalone said Thursday he's expecting 35 players for the camp, which runs through Oct. 16. The Express opens the 1993-94 ECHL season at home on Oct. 19 against the South Carolina Stingrays.
After a hectic summer of stockpiling names, trying to put together a roster from scratch, Anzalone expressed relief that it's finally show time.
"We're all excited and we're looking forward to seeing these guys skate and get on the ice," Anzalone said. "I think that's the easiest part of everything - the actual get-on-the-ice, here-we-go deal. It's pretty hassle-free . . . no phones, no distractions, no interruptions, no nothing except ice.
"It's going to be nice to get all the guys out there and just see how deep or not deep we are. We think we're OK. I really don't know anything more than that at this point."
Anzalone said with the exception of the three spots reserved for the Express' highly touted Russian signees - wings Lev Berdichevsky and Oleg Yashin and center Ilja Dubkov - all jobs are open.
"Right now, every guy on this team could make this team," Anzalone said.
San Jose, the Express' NHL affiliate, has supplied the club with a pair of goaltenders - Dan Ryder and Bryan Schoen - and forward Chris Potter. Ryder split time between the ECHL (Johnstown and Columbus) and International Hockey League (Kansas City) last season. Schoen, coming out of the University of Denver, and Potter, who played last season at the University of Connecticut, are entering their first pro season.
The Express is counting heavily on forward Dave "The Moose" Morissette, the club's first-round selection in June's ECHL dispersal draft. Morissette, who figures to be the Express' leader and on-ice policeman, played last season with Hampton Roads, racking up 226 penalty minutes and 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists) in 54 games.
Of the club's other five selections in the expansion draft, only goalie Pat McGarry, who played for Louisville last season, is expected in camp.
The camp will include additional international flavor besides the Russians. Forwards Jan Michalek and Ladislav Svoboda, both natives of Czechoslovakia, were late recruits by Anzalone.
Five players who toiled in the Central Hockey League last season are among the invitees, including forward Mike Sanderson, who had 37 goals and 68 points in 60 games with Fort Worth. The others include goalie Rocco Trentadue (Fort Worth-Oklahoma City); defenseman Darin Strochenski (Wichita); and forwards Paul Caufield (Tulsa) and Sean Curtin (Fort Worth).
Besides Morissette and McGarry, other players with ECHL experience include defensemen Claude Barthe, who played in Wheeling, Hampton Roads and Knoxville last season, Will Averill (Richmond) and Kyle Galloway (Knoxville).
Former NHL draft picks in camp include McGarry (Toronto, 1991); Averill (New York Islanders, 1987); Barthe (Detroit, 1990); Galloway (Winnipeg, 1988); defenseman Michael Smith (Buffalo, 1991); and forward Jeff Jestadt (Winnipeg, 1991).
"I think we have some pretty good players coming in," Anzalone said. "It's going to be interesting to see how me mesh and how we do in the exhibition games. Not so much win or lose, but how everybody performs, how everybody acclimates, how comfortable guys feel.
"Players who have the talent but also can play together and execute some things we need done will be the guys who finally make the team."
Anzalone must pare his roster to 18 players before the regular-season opener.
\ ICE CHIPS: Anzalone has split the camp roster into two teams for on-ice workouts, which will start full-bore at 3 p.m. Saturday. The club will hold intrasquad scrimmages at 5 p.m. Sunday and 6 p.m. Monday, both of which will be open to the public with no admission charge. The Express opens its three-game exhibition season at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Raleigh at the civic center. Roanoke travels to Greensboro on Thursday, before concluding its preseason schedule Oct. 16 at home against Knoxville. . . . The Roanoke Valley Adult Hockey Association's Adult League will conduct its first skate at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the civic center. The Adult League will feature eight teams, including collegiate squads from Virginia Tech, Roanoke College, Washington and Lee and Radford. Anyone interested in playing should call Rick Kelley (345-5274) or Jim Fisher (387-9114). . . . The Express' three preseason games will not be carried on radio. The club's first broadcast will be the regular-season opener, airing at 6:45 p.m. on WROV-AM (1240). EXPRESS SCHEDULE
The Roanoke Express' 1993-94 East Coast Hockey League 68-game regular-season schedule (home games at the Roanoke Civic Center at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at 7:30 on Fridays and Saturdays): OCTOBER
12 - Raleigh (preseason); 14 - Greensboro at Winston-Salem, N.C. (preseason); 16 - Knoxville (preseason); 19 - South Carolina; 22 - Richmond; 23 - at South Carolina; 28 - at Charlotte; 29 - at Richmond; 30 - at Hampton Roads. NOVEMBER
2 - Erie; 3 - at Charlotte; 5 - at Raleigh; 9 - Charlotte; 10 - at Richmond; 12 - at Raleigh; 18 - Knoxville; 19 - South Carolina; 20 - Nashville; 24 - at Richmond; 25 - Hampton Roads; 27 - at Raleigh. DECEMBER
2 - Richmond; 3 - Charlotte; 11 - Hampton Roads; 14 - Toledo; 16 - at Charlotte; 17 - at Hampton Roads; 18 - Greensboro; 20 - at Greensboro; 21 - Hampton Roads; 23 - at South Carolina; 26 - at Richmond; 29 - at Richmond; 30 - Richmond; 31 - at Hampton Roads. JANUARY
2 - at Knoxville; 4 - Greensboro; 7 - at Erie; 8 - at Johnstown; 11 - Charlotte; 14 - at Toledo; 15 - at Columbus; 16 - at Wheeling; 18 - Johnstown; 21 - Greensboro; 22 - Raleigh; 27 - Dayton; 28 - at Hampton Roads; 29 - Hampton Roads. FEBRUARY
1 - Huntsville; 4 - at Huntington; 5 - at Louisville; 6 - at Dayton; 11 - Raleigh; 12 - Louisville; 18 - Richmond; 19 - Hampton Roads; 20 - at South Carolina; 22 - Columbus; 25 - at Greensboro. MARCH
1 - Greensboro; 2 - at Greensboro; 4 - Raleigh; 5 - Wheeling; 8 - Birmingham; 9 - at Greensboro; 15 - South Carolina; 18 - at Huntsville; 19 - at Birmingham; 20 - at Nashville; 22 - Huntington.
by CNB