THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 15, 1995 TAG: 9510150196
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
The Hampton Roads Admirals atoned Saturday night for all sins committed during the preseason.
Led by a reliable veteran and a surprising newcomer, the Admirals opened the regular season by shocking the Charlotte Checkers 4-2 at Independence Arena.
The victory came after a woeful 0-3 preseason in which Hampton Roads could do little right, and it came against a talented Charlotte team expected to have the league's best scoring punch.
But the Admirals were dominant throughout, especially on special teams, where they shut down Charlotte on eight of 10 power plays, scored two power-play goals and another two shorthanded.
Rod Taylor, the team's top returning scorer, scored the game-winner and had a spectacular diving assist. Yet the star of this game may have been goaltender Darryl Paquette, a rookie who two weeks ago appeared to have little chance of making the team.
Paquette showed quick feet and fast hands in slapping away 27 of 29 Charlotte shots.
He was considered to be a long shot to make the cut when he came to camp two weeks ago. Also in camp were Corwin Saurdiff, last year's starter who is under contract to Portland; Shamus Gregga, who is under contract to Cleveland of the IHL; and Mark Bernard, who played on two ECHL championship teams in Hampton Roads.
Yet Paquette worked his way up the depth chart, and the starting job now appears his to lose.
``I didn't know where I was going to be, if I was going to stay or go to another team,'' Paquette said. ``But I knew what I was capable of. Broph (coach John Brophy) and Al (assistant coach Al MacIsaac) saw me in Portland and knew what I'm capable of. But getting the first start was a surprise. We have a lot of good goaltenders.''
Too many, in fact. Four remain on the roster. Brophy said the team eventually must get down to two.
``We've got to straighten that out and I don't blame the goaltenders for not being happy,'' Brophy said. ``Gregga's done nothing but play well. So have the others. There's a big pileup right now that we've got to take care of.''
The Admirals scored first, at 2:33 of the first period, on a power-play goal. David St. Pierre passed to Chris Phelps, whose slap shot from the blue line was deflected by Dominic Maltais between the legs of goaltender Nick Vitucci.
The Admirals made it 2-0 at 8:47 with Charlotte on a power play by the sheer willpower of Trevor Halverson. Halverson took the puck just inside the blue line and muscled past two Charlotte players into the Checkers' zone. He then passed the puck around a final defender, recovered and wristed it underneath Vitucci's right glove.
The Admirals pulled away in the second period when, with Charlotte ahead 2-1, Taylor got the rebound of his own missed shot and swept it into the net at 4:45.
Then, at 18:04, the Admirals went up 4-1 on another shorthanded goal when Taylor dove and slapped the puck in the same motion toward a streaking Rick Kowalsky, who wristed it in at 18:04.
There was no scoring in the third period, primarily because of the Admirals' defense, which limited the Checkers to seven shots.
Paquette made the best save of the game on Charlotte's best third-period chance, diving and gloving a breakaway shot from Eric Flinton.
``We shut them down in the third period, didn't we?'' Brophy said. ``Our defense put the big clamper on them and wouldn't let them out.'' by CNB