Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990 TAG: 9003222018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Long
The underdog Monarchs, given little chance to beat Virginia entering the playoffs, were doing most of the barking after a 4-3 triumph gave them a 3-1 victory in the best-of-five, first-round East Coast Hockey League series.
Greensboro moves on to face either Erie or Hampton Roads in the second round. Erie and Hampton Roads are tied 2-2 in their series that concludes Friday night in Pennsylvania.
As was the case the entire series, the Monarchs won Game 4 with defense and goaltending.
"They turned the tables on us," said Dave Allison, Virginia's coach. "Those goaltenders are paid to stop pucks and that's what they did. [Wade] Flaherty just kept coming up big."
Virginia did not die easily. Trailing 4-1, the Lancers threw a furious assault at Flaherty in the final six minutes.
Virginia's Scott Drevitch scored on a long deflection with 5:38 left to make it 4-2. Then, with 53 seconds left, Bill Whitfield rifled a long slap shot off a faceoff past Flaherty to make it 4-3.
In the final seconds, Virginia, playing six on five, made one more frantic push. Dan Richards got open for an instant in front of the net, but his 10-foot backhand effort caught Flaherty's right arm and was deflected away.
"Oh, man, I thought it was going in," Richards said. "[Flaherty] made a good save. Their goaltenders, both Flaherty and [Nick] Vitucci, played great. I didn't think that team could shut us down like this."
Virginia scored only 11 goals in four games against a Greensboro team that yielded 4.75 goals in the regular season. In winning seven of eight against the Monarchs during the season, the Lancers averaged 5.4 goals per game.
It was a 10-2 Virginia blowout in the teams' regular-season finale a week ago in Vinton that woke up the Monarchs.
"They blew us out in that game and I knew I was going to have come up with something different," said Jeff Brubaker, Greensboro's coach.
So he got a new recipe from Crocker - that's Bob, not Betty.
"Bob Crocker, a Hartford Whalers scout, was at that game," Brubaker said. "After the game, I sat down with him and had a discussion.
"The next day, I tore down our entire system. We couldn't handle Virginia's speed man-to-man, so we went to a box plus one, where you have four stationary guys and one rover. It worked.
"If we had won that game in Virginia, we probably wouldn't have changed systems and probably would never have won this series."
The Lancers broke on top 4:32 into the game when Richards took a centering feed from Jeff Waver and whipped a rising 15-foot wrist shot past Flaherty for his third goal of the series.
But Virginia, which came into the game with a 17-9 series edge in power-play chances, then had to play most of the rest of the period short-handed.
Working on an advantage created when Virginia's Marco Fuster tripped Flaherty, the Monarchs tied it at 9:24 when unchecked forward Mike McCormick skated in and rifled a 15-foot forehand past McKichan.
Greensboro had three more power-play opportunities in the period, but Virginia managed to kill them. Eventually, though, it caught up with Virginia.
Although it officially wasn't a power-play score - Lancer Doug Hobson had left the penalty box one second earlier - Greensboro's John Sullivan scored on a backhand rebound at 10:52 of the second period to put the Monarchs ahead to stay.
Only 1:44 later, Chris Robertson scored on a rebound to make it 3-1.
Doug Lawrence made it 4-1 with yet another rebounder with 10:41 left in the game.
Allison, whose team lost 10 of its last 13 games, said the Lancers shouldn't feel ashamed.
"This team worked as hard as any group I've ever been around," he said.
"Let's face it, Brubaker did a hell of a job. Greensboro had to play the way they did to beat us, and they did."\ Virginia 101-2 Greensboro 121-4
First period-1, Virginia, Richards 3 (Vitale, Waver), 4:32. 2, Greensboro, McCormick 3 (Blessman), 9:24 (pp). Penalties-Butters, Gr (roughing), :48; Stanley, Va (roughing), :48; Blessman, Gr double minor (unsportsmanlike conduct, roughing), 2:04; Jones, Va (roughing), 2:04; Neish, Va (roughing), 5:56; McCormick, Gr (roughing), 5:56; Fuster, Va minor-double major (tripping, fighting, misconduct), 8:14; Butters, Gr double major (fighting, misconduct), 8:14; Stanley, Va (roughing), 13:05; Waver, Va (roughing), 17:04; Waver, Va (interference), 19:52.
Second period-3, Greensboro, Sullivan 1 (Butters), 10:52. 4, Greensboro, Robertson 1 (Sutton, Blessman), 12:36. Penalties-Lindberg, Va (slashing), 5:20; Thompson, Gr (roughing), 5:20; Herniman, Va (slashing), 7:02; Butters, Gr (cross-checking), 7:02; Hobson, Va (hooking), 8:51; Leggett, Va (interference), 14:45; Herniman, Va double minor (roughing, unsportsmanlike conduct), 17:51; Sullivan, G r double minor (roughing, unsportsmanlike conduct), 17:51.
Third period-5, Greensboro, Lawrence 1 (McCormick), 9:19. 6, Virginia, Drevitch 3 (Leggett, Vitale), 14:22. 7, Virginia, Whitfield 1 (Waver), 19:07. Penalties-Neish, Va double minor-major (roughing, misconduct), 16:26; Laganas, Gr double minor (roughing), 16:26.
Shots on goal-Virginia 9-11-16-36. Greensboro 15-16-9-40.
Goalies-Virginia, McKichan (40 shots-36 saves). Greensboro, Vitucci (36-33).
Power-play opportunities-Virginia 0-of-1. Greensboro 1-of-6.
A-2,654.
by CNB