THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 28, 1994 TAG: 9412280567
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The Hampton Roads Admirals chose to live dangerously Tuesday against the Raleigh IceCaps - and were fortunate to escape from Dorton Arena with a 4-3 victory.
The Admirals had leads of 3-0 and 4-1 and appeared in control until the third period, when they played lethargically and watched IceCaps score two goals and nearly score another.
Hampton Roads goaltender Corwin Saurdiff had to fend off six shots resulting from five faceoffs in the Admirals' end in the final two minutes after the IceCaps pulled goaltender Brad Mullahy.
``The goaltender saved us,'' Admirals coach John Brophy said. ``That's what he's supposed to do.''
Saurdiff did so in unorthodox fashion at 19:33 of the third period with the Admirals leading, 4-3. Derek Linnell appeared to knock in the tying goal by flipping in a rebound of a missed shot, but the goal was waved off by referee Terry Kokarski. Saurdiff had knocked the goal off its supports a split-second before the shot.
The victory was the sixth in the last seven games for Hampton Roads (15-11-3) and pulled the Admirals out of a fourth-place tie with Greensboro. With 33 points, the Admirals are two points ahead of the Monarchs, who play at Scope tonight.
The Admirals, who blasted Charlotte, 8-0, last Friday, continued their scoring binge in the first period by taking a 3-0 lead on goals by Jim Brown, Rick Kowalsky and John Porco.
The near-capacity crowd of 5,571 began booing after the third goal, and even Raleigh coach Rick Barkovich couldn't blame them. The IceCaps, last in the East Division, are 2-9-2 at home and haven't won at Dorton Arena since Nov. 18.
Barkovich called a timeout following Porco's goal, and whatever he said appeared to help stem the Hampton Roads tide. The IceCaps didn't give up a goal the rest of the period, then closed the lead to 3-1 on a Scott MacNair goal at 4:54 of the second. But Rob MacInnis slapped in a power-play goal from the blue line at 11:55 to give Hampton Roads a 4-1 lead.
``They were dead,'' MacInnis said of the IceCaps. ``We had control of the game. But instead of bearing down and doing some work and burying them, we let them come back full steam.''
Lenny Pereira (2:43) and Kevin Riehl (16:13) scored for Raleigh in the third period, in which the IceCaps outshot the Admirals, 16-10.
``We played a great first period, as good as we could play,'' Brophy said. ``But there's no question we backed off'' in the third period.
The Admirals also hurt themselves by taking 11 penalties to seven for Raleigh. That forced the Admirals to spend much of their time killing power plays. And though Raleigh was 0-for-7 with the man advantage, the six IceCaps power plays in the final two periods appeared to disrupt the Admirals' offense.
``It's hard to generate offense when you're killing penalties,'' forward Dennis McEwen said. by CNB