Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 21, 1993 TAG: 9311210191
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The priest didn't make it in time to bless the Express, but the struggling Roanoke club saw its prayers answered anyway.
Dan Dorion, at 30 the oldest player in the East Coast Hockey League, scored on a rebound with five seconds left to give Roanoke a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Knights before a franchise-record 5,524 fans.
The victory snapped Roanoke's three-game home losing streak and enabled the Express (6-9) to salvage a much-needed two points from a three-game home stand.
"If we had lost this game it would have been catastrophic," said Roanoke defenseman Will Averill. "Talk about about some changes being made, it was absolutely imperative that we won tonight."
The priest, who never made it to the Roanoke locker room because he was held up by an afternoon funeral, might have had a doubleheader on his hands if Roanoke had lost this one.
"I don't know how much more of this I can take," Gagnon said, clutching his heart. "Thank the Lord, we won."
This one was wasn't for the faint of heart. Leading 2-1 late, Roanoke appeared to have the game won before taking a pair of stupendous penalties in the final 4:11.
First, defenseman Claude Barthe was sent off for roughing after the whistle had blown, ending a play. Then, goalie Dan Ryder was called for delay of game when he hoisted the puck over the glass on a simple clearing effort with 3:12 left. The dubious penalty parlay left Nashville (6-8-1), a team that had showed virtually no signs of offensive life, with one final gasp.
The Knights, with a five-on-three manpower advantage, cashed in with 2:22 left, when Mike deCarle whistled a 25-foot slap shots past Ryder with 11 seconds left on the two-man advantage.
"It was my fault," Ryder said, referring to his penalty. "I just shot it over the glass. Thank goodness it didn't cost us. Hey, it's about time we got a break."
Dorion, who played four games in the NHL in mid-1980s, got Ryder off the hook, burying Mike Smith's backhand off the pads of Nashville goalie Todd King with five ticks left.
"First, Smith made a good play keeping the puck in," Dorion said. "I was right there for the puck and stabbed in it. We made a couple bad mistakes late, so it feels nice. It was a big game for this hockey team."
Roanoke's coach, Frank Anzalone, seconded that one.
"That's the first break we've caught in four weeks," Anzalone said. "It's a big two points. I'm just glad for the fans. We had 5,000 tonight and we should have had 2,500 the way we've been playing."
The Knights led 1-0 after a first period that could have been sponsored by Sominex.
Nashville scored the only goal 82 seconds into the sleep-inducing period, courtesy of Roanoke's Kyle Galloway. The Express defenseman dived for the puck in an icing situation, only to have it slide under his arm. The puck was poked away by Nashville's Stanislav Tkatch, who fed teammate Dean Gerard, who knocked an uncontested backhand shot past Ryder.
The Express, in an offensive funk for the past two weeks, finally showed signs of breaking out in the second period.
After failing to produce on its third power play of the night and 14th in a row overall early in the period, Roanoke scored twice in 90 seconds.
The Russian line, reduced to a whimper the past five games after posting some big early numbers, pulled Roanoke even at 7:07. Oleg Yashin took a pass from Lev Berdichevsky and beat Knights goalie Todd King on a backhand off a breakaway.
Roanoke captain Dave "Moose" Morissette, suddenly an offensive force, made it 2-1 at 8:37, ripping a 15-foot rebound off Kings' pads into the net. It was Morissette's third goal in the past four games.
It stayed that way late until Roanoke gave Nashville a final chance.
"It's nice to win," Anzalone said. "Yashin got us going, and Moose came up with another big goal. And Dorion was there at the end."
by CNB