THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512100212
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG MERZ, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: COLUMBUS, OHIO LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
The Hampton Roads Admirals were forewarned.
They witnessed how poorly Columbus had played the previous night after a long layoff.
The Admirals, who hadn't played in six days, fell into the same trap. The Chill scored three first-period goals en route to a 5-4 victory before a crowd of 5,151 in the Fairgrounds Coliseum.
The Admirals, who had participated in five straight shootouts, caught fire late and threatened to make it six, nearly erasing a 5-2 deficit.
Sean Selsmer's goal early in the third period made it 5-3. Trevor Halverson then netted his second of the game at 17:47 to make it 5-4. But the Admirals were unable to get the equalizer.
What a difference 24 hours made. Columbus was sluggish in losing at home Friday to Knoxville 4-3 after sitting idle for a week. Many of the Admirals were in the stands for that game, not having played since a shootout win at South Carolina on Dec. 3.
``We got a game under our belt and came out strong,'' the Chill's Derek Clancey said. ``We match up well with them. Our speed was a big factor. We won the man-to-man battle along the boards.''
Columbus pounced on goalie Mark Bernard early. Stefan Rivard beat him from a bad angle at 5:07 while on the power play.
Following Clancey's score at 12:35, Keith Morris pumped in his team-high 21st score with Sergei Voronov in the penalty box.
``Columbus came out flying in the first; we didn't answer,'' Admirals coach John Brophy said. ``Players look at these games and see Columbus on the schedule twice and don't think these games count.''
The Admirals (12-3-9) finally got untracked in the second period. It was a frustrating stanza, however. They fired 16 shots at goalie Jeff Lembke - scoring twice - while Columbus (16-7-2) put two of three shots past Bernard.
Halverson put Hampton Roads on the board at 4:33 of the second with a tip-in.
Clancey, the Chill's top scorer with 41 points, scored his second of the game and 15th of the season 59 seconds later when he skated around two defenders.
It got worse for the Admirals before it got better. John Varga scored a shorthanded goal for the Chill at 12:35 with a blast from the top of the faceoff circle.
``The bottom line was, we played like dogs early,'' Brophy said.
Trailing by four, the Admirals went on the offensive. With less than four minutes left in the second, Aaron Downey deflected David St. Pierre's shot for his sixth score. by CNB