THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 2, 1995 TAG: 9503020624
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ERIE, PA. LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
The ECHL's last-place team hardly had to break a sweat Wednesday to swat down the Hampton Roads Admirals.
The Erie Panthers pounded goaltender Shamus Gregga with 26 shots in the second period, five that resulted in goals, and coasted to a 6-4 victory over the Admirals at the Erie Civic Center.
The loss dropped Hampton Roads (30-22-6) to 2-4-1 on its 13-day, eight-game road trip, which ends tonight at 7 at Johnstown.
The Admirals were without coach John Brophy and forwards Trevor Halverson and Ron Majic - all suspended for their roles in a postgame fight Friday in Wheeling - and thus had only 13 players. And their manpower problems worsen tonight, because All-Star forward John Porco has been called up by Saint John of the AHL.
Brophy said the manpower shortage was no excuse on this night.
``When you give up 26 shots in a period, nobody's doing nothing,'' he said. ``There was no effort.
``The sad part is we played a great first period. It was a perfect period.''
The Admirals led, 2-0, and had outshot Erie, 13-5, after the first period. Jason MacIntyre scored first, knocking in the rebound of a Chris Phelps shot at 5:07. Mike Nemirovsky scored a minute later on a pass from Brendan Curley, who had three assists.
But Erie scored five goals in the first 11:52 of the second period to take control. After Todd Dvorak scored to make it 5-2, Brophy got up from his seat in the stands and walked to the Admirals' dressing room as some in the crowd of 3,374 derisively chanted his name.
Assistant coach Al MacIsaac, who was on the bench in Brophy's place, then called a timeout to try rally his team. It worked briefly, as Porco scored a power-play goal to make it 5-3.
Erie's Jeff Hoad then scored to make it 6-3 midway through the third period. Though the Admirals closed to within two on a Ron Pascucci goal, they made no serious run at Erie in the final minutes.
``We thought it was going to be easy,'' MacIsaac said. ``And it was easy. It was easy for Erie.'' by CNB