DATE: Saturday, October 18, 1997            TAG: 9710180622

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson 

                                            LENGTH:   68 lines

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, BROUGHT TO YOU BY ...

NORFOLK - Alexander Kharlamov, they say, is still getting used to the rougher, tougher way they play ice hockey in North America. So here's something else they threw at the poor guy Friday night during the Admirals' season opener at Scope: the home team's power plays have sponsors now.

No kidding. Each time the Admirals got the man advantage, the PA guy shouted the name of the restaurant that has paid money to have its name associated with hockey's all-important two-minute drill.

I've never been there, but my guess is that particular segments of games played in Kharlamov's native Moscow - Russia, not Idaho - have no marketing tie-in with local businesses.

America. What a country.

Anyway, if it was a rare thing that Kharlamov encountered Friday, it was perhaps just as surprising for the crowd of 8,962 - the club's first season-opening sellout in history - to see Kharlamov in an Admirals' uniform, taking part in the rousing 8-1 rout of Richmond.

Speaking strictly of his pedigree, Kharlamov is the kind of player who visits Norfolk infrequently. That is, Kharlamov, a 22-year-old forward, is a former No. 1 NHL draft choice, and men of that label do not often scrape East Coast Hockey League ice.

The Admirals, in fact, have never had a first-rounder in their lineup before. But as their ninth season starts, there is no place else for Kharlamov to be but Norfolk.

After two years as an underachieving Pirate playing in Portland, Me. of the American Hockey League, Kharlamov was dispatched Thursday to Virginia by the parent Washington Capitals, who used their top draft pick on Kharlamov in 1995.

He hadn't played for Portland this year, and last year managed just nine goals and 15 assists for the Pirates in 56 games. Kharlamov got a nice jump start toward those numbers Friday, contributing a goal and two assists.

Actually, his one goal could have been three. But Kharlamov was stymied by Richmond goalie Taras Lendzyk on a first-period breakaway and later was unable to get his stick on a loose puck while all alone in front of Lendzyk.

``Maybe they've written him off, I don't know,'' Admirals general manager Al MacIsaac says of the Capitals. ``Sometimes No. 1 picks are expected to come in and perform instantaneously. He probably hasn't lived up to what they expected him to be. Maybe that's why he's here.''

Kharlamov, dying to play, says he asked to leave Portland, even if it meant moving to a lesser league.

``I know this is the East Coast league,'' Kharlamov says, smiling. ``It's not the AHL, it's not the NHL. But it's a hockey game. It's all hockey.''

Sadly, hockey for Kharlamov is different for a second burden he carries. Kharlamov's father, Valery, was a star player with the Soviet Red Army teams of the early '70s. And though his father and mother died in a car accident when he was 3 - he was raised by his grandmother - Kharlamov nevertheless will always play with the legend of his father close by.

Understandably, Kharlamov grows uncomfortable when the subject is raised. ``I play my hockey,'' he says with a shrug.

``It makes him sad when people talk about his father,'' says Admirals captain Alex Alexeev, a Ukrainian who was with Portland when Kharlamov arrived two years ago.

Alexeev helped Kharlamov adjust to the States then, and perhaps he is a factor in Kharlamov's presence here now. Alexeev, perhaps, is seen as the steadying influence who can energize Kharlamov, stoke the confidence that Kharlamov is said to lack.

``At Portland, he never really got the chance to play,'' Alexeev says. ``He'll play here. And as good as he gets, that's as good as he gets.''

One thing's for sure. Whatever happened to him in Portland, the Admirals, in Kharlamov, have yet to meet a No. 1 draft pick they didn't like.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu