Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 9, 1994 TAG: 9403090135
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
With its power-play resembling a Chinese fire drill - failing to score on 11 opportunities - the Express continued to run backward Tuesday night, losing 5-3 to the Birmingham Bulls before a crowd of 3,442 at the Roanoke Civic Center.
The loss was Roanoke's fourth in a row - tying its longest skid of the East Coast Hockey League season - and turned up the pressure on a club suddenly scrambling to earn a playoff berth. Roanoke (32-27-3) still leads pursuing Richmond (27-27-5) by eight points in the race for the 16th and final spot, but the Renegades have three games in hand.
In a league where special teams rule, Roanoke continues to strangle itself with a disorganized power play that seldom produces quality scoring chances. In its past 15 home games, the Express has scored on 10 of 87 manpower advantages (11.2 percent). In a third-period five-on-three chance for 46 seconds, Roanoke failed to put a shot on goal.
Meanwhile, Birmingham (40-18-2) won it on the power play, breaking a 3-3 tie with 2 minutes, 18 seconds left on Dave Craievich's 30-foot drive from the top of the right faceoff circle.
"Teams know we're struggling, so they tend to be aggressive on us [on the power play]," said Roanoke defenseman Will Averill. "And when you are struggling, you tend to be a little more uptight out there. At times, we worked it around well, but we're losing the puck too many times and they're icing it. We're just not playing with the confidence we were before."
After his club lost another game it should have won - the Express outshot the Bulls 39-21 and controlled play most of the night - Roanoke coach Frank Anzalone closed the locker room door and said, "I have nothing to say."
Express center Roger Larche feels a sense of urgency.
"Guys are trying to stay as positive as they can," Larche said. "I don't know . . . we're just missing the edge and somehow we've got to find a way to get it back.
"Right now we're just fortunate, cross our fingers, that Richmond won't win. Hey, it's hard not to panic a little in this situation. Somebody, somewhere is going to have to be a leader and step up to end this thing.
"We just need to win a game. We've worked too hard to let this go. We're going to make the playoffs. I don't care what we have to do."
To do it, the Express is going to have to stop making mistakes at critical junctures.
Averill made two costly blunders Tuesday, giving the puck to Birmingham's Joe Flanagan for a gift short-handed breakaway goal that gave the Bulls a 3-2 lead after two periods.
After Averill tied the score at 3 on 25-foot slap shot two seconds after an Express power play expired, the defenseman set up the Bulls' game-winning score by taking a slashing penalty on Darcy Norton with 3:59 left.
"I have no doubt that we will get out of this," Averill said. "We all thought tonight was going to be the night. From now on, every game is like a playoff game."
\ ICE CHIPS: Goaltender Dan Ryder will leave the club today for Kansas City of the International Hockey League. To replace Ryder, the Express signed Andrei Mezem. The 19-year-old Russian has been playing junior hockey in Ottawa and is projected by the Central Scouting Bureau as a fourth-round pick in the 1994 NHL draft.
by CNB