ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310055
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
MATT DelGUIDICE nearly gets a shutout as Roanoke beats Nashville 2-1 in the ECHL.
Matt DelGuidice beat a team that once gave up on him and, in the process, sparked a team he thought was about to give up on him.
DelGuidice revived the not-too-distant memories of his great start this season by making 29 saves for the Roanoke Express in a 2-1 East Coast Hockey League victory over the Nashville Knights Tuesday night in the Roanoke Civic Center.
In beating a team that traded him to Roanoke before the season began, DelGuidice (9-7-2) won for the first time in two months. After getting off to an 8-2 start as Roanoke's No.1 goaltender, DelGuidice hadn't won since beating Birmingham 5-3 on Nov.18. DelGuidice, who has been relegated to a backup role since the Express signed Daniel Berthiaume in November, had been 0-5-2 in 11 appearances since then.
``Two months is a long drought,'' said DelGuidice, who had been the subject of trade rumors in the past month. ``I think I played strong in some of those games I lost. It's just that when you've got a guy like [Berthiaume] ... He's playing really well.''
Berthiaume shut out Hampton Roads 1-0 on Saturday, and for a while it appeared DelGuidice would make it back-to-back goose eggs. Nashville scored its lone goal in the third period.
``Everybody wanted this for Matt,'' said Frank Anzalone, the Express' coach. ``I told him he had been playing well, but we're in a business where you have to win.''
Beating the team that traded him for defenseman Stephane Desjardins was doubly sweet for DelGuidice, who was 7-8-2 with a 4.82 goals-against average for the Knights during the 1994-95 season.
``It felt great to beat them, even though I still have some friends on the team,'' DelGuidice said. ``There were times there [in Nashville], though, when I didn't have good support.''
Anzalone knows what it's like to lack support in Nashville. Anzalone was fired as the Knights' head coach late in the 1991-92 season after some of the players turned against him.
With Tuesday's victory, Anzalone improved his record to 3-0 against the team that let him go.
Another highlight occurred in the first intermission, when Express fan Michael Nichols won a four-wheel-drive, off-road all-terrain vehicle by shooting a puck from the blue line through a 3-inch wide slot in a board covering the goal. For a while, it appeared Nichols would outscore the Knights, as DelGuidice seemed just as impenetrable as that board.
Nashville (23-15-5) finally reached DelGuidice for a goal with 3:06 remaining, when Shane Calder spun around in the slot between two defenders and sent a shot that glanced off DelGuidice and found the net.
For the second game in a row, Roanoke (24-20-2) got all its scoring in the first period, as Jason Clarke and Ilya Dubkov scored in the first.
Roanoke's first score resulted from some fine playmaking by center Karry Biette and good hustle from Clarke. Biette collected the puck in the neutral zone, carried it across the blue line and took it all the way behind the net before he zipped it back to the trailing Clarke, who buried a shot at 12:47.
Less than two minutes later, Jeff Jablonski forechecked the puck free and Tim Christian found Dubkov between the circles. Skating unchecked in front of the net, Dubkov shoveled a backhand past goalie Craig Brown to make it 2-0 at 14:31. Dubkov, who hadn't scored a goal in 12 games before netting the game-winner against Hampton Roads, has scored a goal in back-to-back games for the first time since Nov.18-22.
ICE CHIPS: Nichols, who spent much of his life in Fort Wayne, Ind., before retiring from the military and returning to his hometown of Roanoke, said he had not played hockey since he was a kid. ``I play golf,'' he said. ``Everybody told me to line it up like it was a putt, keep contact with the puck as you push it.'' Nichols, who delivers newspapers with his wife Debbie, said the Polaris will get plenty of use. ``I've got two grandsons who'll have a ball with this,'' he said. ... Nashville, the league's leading power-play team, was 0-for-4 on power plays Tuesday. ... Chris Potter was scratched from Tuesday's lineup because of a bruised left wrist he suffered in Saturday's win over Hampton Roads.
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB