Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 24, 1994 TAG: 9403240208
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Express' season of overachievement was rudely pushed to the brink of extinction Wednesday night at the Roanoke Civic Center, where powerful Raleigh smoked Roanoke 5-2 in Game 1 of the clubs' East Coast Hockey League playoff series.
The Express, the little engine that could all season long, faces the workload of 10 locomotives if it's going to keep chugging.
The victory put the IceCaps up 1-0 in the best-of-three series, meaning Roanoke will have to win two games in Raleigh to keep its season alive.
Game 2 is Friday at Dorton Arena. Game 3, if necessary, will be played Saturday.
Judging from Raleigh's domination Wednesday, Roanoke's task seems nothing short of impossible. The IceCaps simply had too many guns for the Express.
"I'm not going to say the series is over," said Frank Anzalone, Roanoke's coach, "but it's sure not going to be easy.
"Raleigh's a great team. We worked hard, but they just had too much. They outplayed us, they checked better and they were the better team. It's going to take almost a perfect game by our team to beat them."
Twice. Twice in a rink where Raleigh hasn't lost since Jan. 28, a span of 11 games.
"I do like our chances," said Kurt Kleinendorst, the IceCaps' coach. "But it's not over yet. It's not over until we win two."
Raleigh, which rolled into the playoffs as a winner of nine of 10 and 17 of its past 21 games, treated the Express like no team before at the civic center.
Raleigh outshot Roanoke 48-19. At the other end, the IceCaps' defense put the shackles on the Express' top four offensive guns - Tony Szabo, Oleg Yashin, Pat Ferschweiler and Jeff Jestadt - limiting each to one shot on goal.
Despite those numbers, Roanoke trailed only 3-2 after Gairin Smith scored on a drive from between the faceoff circles with 5 minutes, 42 seconds left in the second period.
Then came the play that turned the game. Only 19 seconds later, Raleigh forward Steve Mirabile, flying down the right wing, walked around Roanoke defenseman Kyle Galloway and fired the puck past Express goaltender Paul Cohen into the top of the net.
Suddenly, Roanoke was down two again, the crowd of 3,624 fell silent.
"That changed the whole game," Anzalone said. "The momentum had just swung our way a little bit, not a lot but a little.
"Unfortunately, Kyle gave him the whole inside of the ice and Mirabile walked him."
Galloway offered no ablibis. On a night when the unknown-soldier defenseman broke a 43-game goal-less streak and assisted on Smith's goal, there was no happiness.
"I choked; I gave it away," Galloway said. "If I could go on national TV right now and tell everybody, I would. I let him [Mirabile] walk right around me like no man before."
Despite what Galloway said, that one play wasn't the game. Raleigh was just too good, plain and simple. The IceCaps should be. They have six NHL-contract players. The Express has one - goalie Dan Ryder - and he did nothing on this night but lead the cheers.
"They've got a hell of a team," Jestadt said. "They're as good as advertised."
Mirabile, who had Raleigh's first three goals, said the IceCaps knew they had to to get it done in Roanoke.
"We didn't want to go back home down 1-0 and give them two shots at beating us," he said. "We don't want to give Roanoke any confidence that it can beat us. It's not over yet, though."
\ ICE CHIPS: Counting the regular season, Raleigh is 6-1-0 vs. Roanoke. . . . After taking a look at the videotape Wednesday morning, ECHL Commissioner Pat Kelly cleared Express forward Gairin Smith for the playoffs. Smith, the main offender in a brawl Saturday in Birmingham, served two games of an original five-game suspension. . . . Express general manager Pierre Paiement said forward Lev Berdichevsky is "likely" to return from Adirondack (AHL) to play in Game 2. . . . Forwards Reggie Brezeault and Tom Holdeman were not included on Roanoke's 18-man playoff roster. . . .
Raleigh, the ECHL's best defensive club, has given up three or fewer goals in 43 of 69 games. . . . The 19 shots on goal marked a Roanoke home low. Szabo ranked second in the ECHL in shots during the regular season with 342. . . . Forward Curt Regnier, one of the IceCaps' four New Jersey Devils-contract players, had a goal and one assist. Barry Nieckar, one of two IceCaps under NHL contract to Hartford, had Raleigh's other goal. . . . Galloway's two-point game was only his second multipoint effort in 60 games played. . . . Raleigh, which has won six in a row counting the last five regular-season games, owned Roanoke on the road this season, winning all four games at the civic center. . . . Raleigh lost two in a row at home once this season, on Dec. 11 to Toledo and Dec. 14 to Richmond. . . . Cohen saw his four-game winning streak in net snapped. . . .
The crowd of 3,624 had to be puzzling to Express officials. The club drew 5,214 for a meaningless regular-season finale against Huntington 24 hours earlier. . . . Gagnon and his family left Wednesday morning for a long-planned trip to Mexico City. While stopping in Houston en route to Mexico City, Gagnon called and had the club arrange to let him listen to the game broadcast via long-distance phone through WNLI-FM in Lynchburg.
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.