THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 27, 1996 TAG: 9601270395
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
I never thought about it, but I guess a guy does need a large intestine to play hockey, doesn't he?
Fortunately, Corwin Saurdiff of the Hampton Roads Admirals has not had to put that question to the test. The 23-year-old goaltender still sports his original digestive equipment, but he came within a day of needing surgery that would have permanently altered his inner state.
This was back in October, in the aftermath of Saurdiff's harrowing battle with colitis, a brutal colon infection that put him in the hospital for two weeks.
The large intestine nearly had to go. Without it, Saurdiff was told, he could have enjoyed a normal life with few restrictions. One of them, though, would have been hockey. It would have been history.
Intensive treatment and medicine brought him around, however. And Friday night at Scope brought the sight of Saurdiff back between the pipes for the first time since Oct. 18 - the night he collapsed after posting a 6-4 victory over Raleigh in the second game of the season.
``I was so dehydrated,'' Saurdiff said before he resumed his season, also against Raleigh. ``I had been sick a long time, but I just kept putting it off and putting it off. I knew I was tired, but I felt I could play so I wanted to play.''
Later, the doctor told him it was incredible that he could play three periods that game.
``I had lived two weeks with nothing in my body,'' Saurdiff said. ``I know now that I should've taken that first month off. But I wouldn't do it and paid the price, big-time. I learned a lesson.''
The illness prevents the body from absorbing food and water. Saurdiff knew all about it anyway, having been plagued by colitis twice in the last three years.
Never like this, though, where the internal bleeding was so great that his blood pressure rose and plunged dangerously. Where 20 pounds fell off his 6-foot-1 frame. Where the prescribed steroid he was required to take bloated his face and turned his joints tender and sore.
It was enough to make Saurdiff, a fourth-year pro from northern Minnesota, consider scrapping the season and going home. Getting his 21-foot boat ready for the spring and summer, when he makes a buck ferrying fishermen miles out onto one of his state's pristine lakes.
In the end, that was too far off to think about. It's hockey season, and Saurdiff has played hockey since he was old enough to toddle down to the rink a couple blocks from his boyhood home.
``I miss it,'' said Saurdiff. ``I wanted to get back on the ice and hear the fans. That's the reason I played that first game.''
(Friday, sadly, he mostly heard boos, especially when the IceCaps took a 4-1 lead in the third period. The IceCaps held on to win, 5-3.)
``I know there are only 25 games left, but I want to prove to people I can still play,'' he said. ``And you don't know what's going to happen night to night or day to day.''
With the Admirals' other goalies, Mark Bernard and Todd Hunter, enjoying strong seasons, Saurdiff's playing time could be sparse the rest of the way, unless injury strikes. Whatever action he gets, however, could be important to his future.
Saurdiff, a second-year Admiral, is under contract to Portland of the American Hockey League. But because he's been out so long, he doesn't expect another offer from Portland for next year.
That could create some ``soul-searching'' after this season, he said, as to whether or not he wants to continue. If not, Saurdiff will be remembered in Hampton Roads as the fourth pro goalie to ever score a goal, as he did last March.
And as the guy who almost gave a piece of himself for his team. by CNB