Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 18, 1993 TAG: 9310170191
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A crowd of 5,022 - the largest for a minor-league game in the Roanoke Valley since 1976 - turned out at the Roanoke Civic Center on Saturday night for a game that didn't even count.
The Roanoke Express, which has yet to resemble a typical bumbling expansion franchise, made sure the fans left happy, drilling Knoxville 6-3 in its preseason finale.
"We couldn't have asked for a better start to this venture," said John Gagnon, the Express' principal owner.
"Five-thousand for an exhibition game? Are you kidding me? And what about that club on the ice? Here, I was afraid we might get blown out tonight."
Instead it was Knoxville, which is being touted as the ECHL's most improved club for 1993-94, that got its clock cleaned.
After a shaky first nine minutes, the Express dominated, outshooting the Cherokees 48-23 for the night.
Roanoke got two goals from defenseman Michael Smith, three from its European connection - Russians Lev Berdichevsky and Ilja Dubkov and Czech Ladislav Svoboda - and one from Tony Szabo to finish the preseason with a 2-1 record.
"We played a great game," said Frank Anzalone, the Express coach. "I've never had a team that's moved this quickly in five days. We've gotten so much accomplished it's almost unbelievable. I like what I'm seeing."
So does Gagnon.
The start of the game was delayed 10 minutes because traffic was backed up on I-581 at the civic center exit.
\ ICE CHIPS: Anzalone, who was agonizing over his final roster cuts, had a lot of his work done for him Saturday morning. Three players - defenseman Andrew Moir and forwards Sean Curtin and Mark Carlson - retired. Defenseman Darin Srochenski also left, accepting an offer to play in the Central Hockey League. Anzalone waived forward Jeff Dandreta, cutting his roster to 19 players, one more than the regular-season limit of 18. Anzalone will cut two goalies - possibly today - leaving him one skating spot open to pluck a player off the ECHL waiver wire. . . . Express enforcer Dave "Moose" Morissette still hasn't suited up for a home game. \
see microfilm for box score
by CNB