Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 12, 1992 TAG: 9202120246
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALBERTVILLE, FRANCE LENGTH: Long
U.S. WINS IN HOCKEY WITH LEBLANC'S BLOCKS
LeBlanc is his name, "Le Blank" is his game.He snared pucks in midair, blocked them with his body, roamed the ice daringly away from the goal. Ray LeBlanc looked like an octopus with pads and a ferocious mask Tuesday as he stopped 46 shots for the unbeaten United States hockey team in the first shutout of the Winter Olympics.
The Americans' shake 'em up, knock 'em down, stop 'em cold show beat Germany 2-0, and their 2-0 record is their best start since the 5-0 gold-medal team in 1960 at Squaw Valley.
The perfect performance on ice contrasted with chaos on the snow-blown Alps above. Any ski bum who ever tumbled down a slope could relate to the slickest skiers in the world as they slipped and slid, fell and flopped.
Austrian skier Hubert Strolz's bid for an historic second straight gold medal blew up in a burst of snow 100 feet from the finish, and another Austrian medal contender, Sabine Ginther, was sent home with a back injury after she took a wild spill on the downhill.
Just a half-hour earlier, Wendy Fisher became the second American woman in two days to be knocked out of the Games, breaking a thumb and suffering a concussion in an even more spectacular spinout.
There were plenty more skids down at the figure-skating rink by the American pairs, who were shut out of the medals.
The "Blue Collar Couple," cocktail waitress Calla Urbanski and trucker Rocky Marval, stumbled early and were out of sync in a shaky program that left them in 10th place. Todd Sand fell twice in his program with Natasha Kuchiki.
"A lot of people were watching us and behind us and it wasn't our best, so you can't be happy about it," Urbanski said.
As usual - even in unusual times - the gold went to the Russians, world champions Natalia Mishkutienok and Artur Dmitriev. They earned seven 5.9s - 6.0 is perfect - for artistic impression and were first with all nine judges in winning the eighth straight pairs title for the former Soviet Union, the longest championship streak in the history of the Winter Games.
The Unified Team took the silver with Elena Bechke and Denis Petrov, and Canada won the bronze, its first medal of the Games, with Isabella Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler.
By winning gold and bronze in the first Olympic women's biathlon, which combines rifle shooting and cross-country skiing, the former Soviets claimed four of nine medals awarded Tuesday and were one behind Austria's leading total of seven.
The United States had only the gold won by Bonnie Blair in speed skating but had high hopes for more after Cammy Myler overcame the flu and a sleepless night to race into contention midway through the women's singles luge.
Matching the highest-ever Olympic placing by an American slider, Myler had a combined time for two runs of 1 minute, 34.023 seconds. That left her sixth, .669 seconds behind leader Doris Neuner of Austria. Neuner's sister, Angelika, was second, with teammate Andrea Tagwerker third.
The U.S. hockey team, rapped for its wimpy defense in 1988, bullied the Germans as LeBlanc mounted up the saves and Marty McInnis and Ted Donato scored power-play goals.
Near the end, the crowd chanted "Ray, Ray."
"I heard them, but I'm focused into the game," LeBlanc, a former player in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League with Pine Bridge, N.C., and Carolina in the mid-1980s, said. "I'm waiting for the next shot. You always want to do like Jim Craig did in 1980 and be a hero. Tonight, I'm going to be really happy and celebrate a little. But there's still a lot more games left."
At Lake Placid in 1980, the Americans tied their first game, then won their next six and the gold medal, but they finished seventh the past two Olympics and allowed 31 goals in six games in 1988.
U.S. coach Dave Peterson credited the improvement this year to an arduous 62-game training schedule, about a third of it against NHL competition.
"As a result, I think we're pretty gritty," he said.
The victory kept the United States tied with Finland, its next opponent Thursday, in their six-team group.
"We've got a lot of young guys, and we're riding the emotion," U.S. defenseman Moe Mantha said.
Fancy passing and fluky scoring - one pass from behind the net rolled off a goalie's back for a score - helped Finland build a 4-0 first-period lead and the 1988 silver-medal team rolled to a 9-1 victory over Poland.
Italy didn't wait for "Alberto-ville" Tomba to make his bid for two golds on the slopes before starting to celebrate. Compatriots Josef Polig and Gianfranco Martin won the men's Alpine combined event - downhill one day, slalom the next - thanks to a heartbreaking fall near the finish by Strolz, the leader and defending champion.
Strolz, trying to become the first Alpine skier to win the same event in two Olympics, was one of four skiers who wiped out on the rutted slopes of La Face de Bellevarde in Val d'Isere. Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg and Guenther Mader of Austria had fallen in the downhill, opening the way for Strolz and Paul Accola of Switzerland.
Polig was sixth in the downhill and fifth in the slalom with a two-run time of 1 minute, 42.16 seconds. His combined points from the two results were 14.58, edging Martin with 14.90 points.
The top American in the event, AJ Kitt, was 10th in the downhill but bruised a shin in the event and did not enter the slalom. A poor slalom skier, he was not expected to win a medal.
Italian skiers were given their gold and silver medals from men's combined skiing, despite a protest by the Swiss and French teams over the size of commercial logos on the Italian uniforms.
The sport's international governing body, the International Ski Federation, will consider the protest but will not give a verdict for three weeks, the Albertville Olympic organizer, COJO, said in a news release.