Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 25, 1992 TAG: 9201250287
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
5-3 WIN GIVES REBELS BOOST
There's still a blip showing on the screen of the Roanoke Valley Rebels' life-support system.Clinging for survival in their desperate chase to make the East Coast Hockey League playoffs, the Rebels got a much-needed transfusion Friday night, tripping the Dayton Bombers 5-3 at the Vinton LancerLot.
"Hey, it's now or never for us," said Rebels forward Mark Woolf. "If we want to stay alive, if we want to make the playoffs, we've got to start winning - and winning now."
For the Rebels (14-23-3), that task comes much easier at home. The same club that has won only four of 22 starts on the road has taken three straight and six of its past seven games at the LancerLot.
Coach Roy Sommer, whose club trails Knoxville (14-23-5) by two points for the sixth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Division, realizes his only trump card is the fact that 14 of the Rebels' final 24 games are at home.
"Home cooking, baby. Maybe that's it," Sommer said. "Lord knows, we're not the same club when we get out of this building. Go on the road with us and I bet you wouldn't recognize some of these guys."
Friday, for the first time in a while, the Rebels recognized there's a net on the ice. And to win, a team must put a puck there more than once or twice a game. Roanoke Valley had scored more than two goals only twice in its past 11 games.
"We haven't gotten any offense lately," said Brett Stewart, who supplied two of the Rebels' five goals. "We can't beat anybody scoring one, two goals a game. You've got to have three or four a game to win."
The biggest goal came from Woolf, whose rebound off his own shot with 5:03 left was the winner, breaking a 3-3 tie.
"It's good to see my line [with Stewart and Wayne Muir] getting its confidence back," said Woolf, who also had three assists. "I think we can pull this off [make the playoffs]. It's going to be a long summer for the team that doesn't. And myself, I don't like long summers."
It was a long night for Dayton (20-16-3). Former Rebels coach Claude Noel's club had oodles of scoring chances, including seven power-play opportunities, but pushed the puck past Rebels goalie Mike James only three times.
"James frustrated some of our guys," Noel said. "I thought he really played well. He was probably the difference."
The Bombers, skating two players short, ran out of gas.
Still, it wasn't easy. With the Rebels leading 4-3 and seemingly in control, Muir manufactured a few gray hairs in Sommer's head when he took a roughing penalty with 2:26 to play.
"That was inexcusable," Sommer said. "I was going to kill Wayne Muir. I was ready to get my knife out and skin him alive."
But the Rebels' penalty-killers and James got Muir off the hook by fending off the Bombers in the final two minutes.
\ ICE CHIPS: The teams meet again tonight at the LancerLot. . . . Defenseman Frank "The Animal" Bialowas had the Rebels' third goal. Forward Bill Harrington, back in the lineup after missing three weeks because of an injury, sealed the win, scoring an empty-net goal with 10 seconds left. . . . The Rebels' special teams had a good night. Besides the penalty-killing, Roanoke Valley scored twice in five power plays. . . . In the 11-game offensive slump, the Rebels had scored four goals three times, two goals five times and one goal three times. . . . The win was Roanoke Valley's third in 12 games against Western Division opponents. . . . The Rebels are to 10-7-1 at home. . . . The crowd was the smallest for a home game since Dec. 5, when 1,234 showed for Johnstown. \
see microfilm for box score