Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 6, 1994 TAG: 9403060188
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In a disastrous sequel to Friday's flop against Raleigh, the suddenly steamless Roanoke Express got smoked again Saturday night, 6-2 by the Wheeling Thunderbirds in front of 7,182 spectators at the Roanoke Civic Center.
The roasting came 24 hours after Raleigh's 9-3 victory at the civic center.
After the twin cookings, the Express, which not long ago was one of the East Coast Hockey League's hottest outfits, was left to wonder if it can recover from such back-to-back pastings.
"I don't know if we can," Roanoke coach Frank Anzalone said. "You like to think you can recover but it's a slow process.
"Our team right now is awful. We feel awful. We're playing awful."
Anzalone didn't have to tell anybody. If they could stand to hold their eyes open, the combined 13,314 who witnessed the past two games know it.
Suddenly, a team that has overachieved all season doesn't seem to have a clue.
"Everything has piled up to the point where we literally just got our rear ends kicked," Anzalone said. "There are some problems we haven't handled. The loss of [Lev] Berdichevsky has caught up with us. That's hurt the Russian line. Oleg [Yashin] can't scored because Lev is not out there.
"The lack of practice time . . . our timing is off, our conditioning is off. We've practiced once the last nine days. And our system has deteriorated. The players have lost focus. And it's easy to do because our players have been playing more basketball [at the YMCA] than hockey."
The game's first two minutes and 10 seconds were an extension of Friday's humbling act, and before many in the crowd had found their seats, Wheeling led 2-0.
Forty seconds after the opening faceoff, Steve Prpic beat Roanoke goaltender Paul Cohen with a 15-foot one-timer off a won draw in the Express end.
Ninety seconds later, Rival Fullum, camped alone in the left slot, took a pinpoint feed from the top of the right circle from Brent Pope and buried the puck past Cohen, who had no chance.
"It's 2-0 before the referee even gets his whistle wet," Anzalone said. "During the weekend, we've given up a total of seven soft goals a PeeWee team would have put in net. Then we come down on their goalie and we can't score. Then, it's 3-0, 4-0, then we take a bad penalty and it's 5-0. And now we can't recover."
Roanoke (32-26-3) must regroup soon or what appeared to be a lock ticket to the ECHL playoffs may be handed to Richmond. The Renegades won at Johnstown on Saturday to close to eight points behind Roanoke in the chase for the league's final postseason berth. Helping Richmond's cause is the fact it has two games in hand on Roanoke.
"We're in very serious danger of losing our playoff spot, and that goes with losing like this at this late a date," Anzalone said. "Richmond knows we're in dire straits. Word gets around. We've given them new hope."
\ ICE CHIPS: Six players scored for Wheeling (34-19-6), which completed a sweep of its two-game season series against Roanoke. . . . Yashin and Jestadt had the Express' goals. Jestadt's was his 37th, which leads all players on the active roster. . . . The Express continues to suffer stage fright in front of big home crowds. Roanoke is 16-3-0 at home in front of crowds of 6,000 or less and 4-6-2 before gatherings of 6,000-plus. . . . No wonder Express management craves more Saturday home dates. The crowd marked the fifth consecutive Saturday that the Express has drawn 7,132 or more. Roanoke drew 37,810 for its final five Saturday games, an average of 7,562. In its eight total Saturday dates, the club averaged 6,471. . . . Roanoke has seven games left - three at home and four on the road. The Express will attempt to salvage something from the three-game home stand Tuesday when Birmingham makes its only visit of the season to Roanoke.
by CNB