Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201260247
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BOMBERS SURVIVE REBELS
Claude Noel didn't need any more LancerLot nightmares.Noel, who suffered through many horror stories in the Vinton building last season to cover a coaching lifetime, nearly witnessed a bad flashback Saturday night.
Noel watched his Dayton Bombers blow a three-goal lead, then have another score waved off before hanging a 5-3 East Coast Hockey League loss on his old club, the Roanoke Valley Rebels.
"I'm just glad to get out of this place," Noel said. "Considering what happened tonight, we were lucky to get out of here with two points.
"We're up 3-0 and in control, then boom, boom, boom, and we're tied. Then they get a questionable five-minute power play. I was beginning to think it was last season all over again."
The Bombers (21-16-3) got the short end of everything except the score, Noel claimed.
"There were a lot of questionable calls [by referee Scott Edwards]," he charged. "Hey, we're lucky. Everything was going against us."
Except that these Rebels (14-24-3) could not stand prosperity. After erasing a 3-0 deficit with three goals - two by Steve Chelios and one by Bill Harrington - in a 2:49 span midway through the second period, the Rebels had their chance to seize command when Dayton's Ray Edwards was called for a major cross-checking penalty on Roanoke's Devin Derksen.
Instead of cashing in on the five-minute power play, the Rebels gave up the advantage. Sixty-nine seconds into the Roanoke power play, Chelios was called for interference. Another minor penalty, on the Rebels' bench for too many men on the ice, took care of the rest of what was a golden scoring opportunity.
"We had it, had the momentum, then we gave it right back to them," said Roy Sommer, Noel's replacement behind the Roanoke Valley bench.
"We turned a five-minute power play into two minors against us. You just can't do that and expect to win. We should have had 'em then."
Harrington said the two minors that erased the advantage deflated the Rebels.
"The five-minute power play was the pivotal point of the game," he said. "I don't know if it's us not being disciplined or not. No matter what, it shouldn't happen."
The Bombers then went ahead to stay on Shawn Howard's breakaway goal with 4:27 left in the second period.
Dayton appeared to have an insurance goal when Darren Colbourne stuffed the puck past Rebels goalie Mike James glove and the post with 7:50 to play in the game, but the goal was waved off.
The Rebels had several good chances to tie in the third period but couldn't find the open net. Sylvain Fleury's empty-net goal with 33 seconds left in the game provided Dayton's final goal.
\ ICE CHIPS: Chelios' two goals were his first in nine games since joining the club. . . . The loss snapped the Rebels' three-game home winning streak. . . . Al Novakowski, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound defenseman who started the season with Columbus, arrived in town Saturday and will join the club this week. Novakowski, 25, who had 83 penalty minutes and one assist in 10 games with the Chill, gives the Rebels added depth in the enforcer department behind top hit man Frank "The Animal" Bialowas. \
see microfilm for box score