DATE: Saturday, April 19, 1997              TAG: 9704190841

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   67 lines

ADMIRALS SAY WIHOUT PENALTIES, THEY'LL WIN

The Hampton Roads Admirals enter tonight's must-win ECHL playoff game with South Carolina at Scope infused with confidence following their 8-3 victory over the Stingrays Thursday.

``We're the better team when we stay out of the penalty box,'' forward Aaron Downey said in spite of South Carolina's 2-1 edge in the best of five series. ``If we stay out of the penalty box, we're going to win this series.''

Admirals coach John Brophy agrees, even though the Stingrays finished first in East Division and led the ECHL with 97 points.

``All we have to do to beat this team is stay five-on-five,'' Brophy said. ``South Carolina has a good team. But I don't think they have a better team than we do, not for a second.

``We had the most wins in the league. We had the most road wins, the best penalty killing, we gave up the least shots.''

But so far in this series the Admirals haven't stayed out of the penalty box. They've given 28 power-play opportunities in three games, including 11 in the win Thursday. South Carolina has surrendered 20 power plays to Hampton Roads.

In 6-5 and 5-4 overtime losses last week in North Charleston, every time the Admirals appeared ready to take control, the referee's hand would rise and Hampton Roads would be forced to kill a penalty.

Brophy dressed down his players for several minutes following Thursday's victory for a spate of late penalties. Following practice Friday, he placed the blame on his team and not the referees.

``I'm not criticizing the refereeing,'' he said.

Yet without the lopsided skein of penalties last week, the Admirals say the series would be over now and that they would be preparing for the ECHL semifinals against either Richmond or Pensacola.

``We outplayed them both games in South Carolina,'' said forward Victor Gervais, who missed both losses with a pulled groin. ``The difference (in Thursday's win) was that some of our shots went into the net.

``I think they know they're in for a hard series now and they'll come out flying Saturday.''

The Admirals' defense suffered two key losses prior to Thursday's game, in which the Admirals were outshot in the game's first 56 minutes. Two-time All-ECHL defenseman Chris Phelps is in Ottawa following the death of his infant child on Monday and Alexei Krivchenkov was recalled by Cleveland of the IHL.

But said Brophy: ``Our defense right now is four times better than it was this time last year. They're playing great.''

Unlike the two OT defeats in South Carolina, the Admirals jumped out to a big lead Thursday. The Admirals were up 5-1 in the second period when the Stingrays began playing aggressively, pushing their defenseman toward the Admirals' goal, in an effort to rally.

``We finally got out to a lead.'' forward Rick Kowalsky said. ``That was a big key.

``They started rushing up on the play, trying to score. They were taking chances. That's why we were able to run up the score. We would take it down on a 2-of-1 after they would gamble.''

That's why South Carolina coach Rick Vaive said the game was closer than the score would indicate.

I don't believe it was an 8-3 game,'' he said. ``It kind of got out of hand after a while.

``But give the Admirals credit, they came out and played hard. They were determined to win the game. They weren't going to be denied it seemed.

``But they've still got to win two more. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

John Brophy

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