Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994 TAG: 9401280202
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The first-year Roanoke Express has graduated to the next level. It now can play ugly and win.
Although it clearly wasn't hitting on all cylinders, the Express still had enough steam to deactivate the Dayton Bombers 7-4 before 3,147 spectators at the Roanoke Civic Center.
"We were flat, but we still found a way. And that's a good sign," Express coach Frank Anzalone said.
The win allowed Roanoke (23-19-2) to conclude a four-game homestand with a 2-1-1 record. Despite going 16-8-2 the past two months, Roanoke still finds itself in sixth place in the tough East Division of the East Coast Hockey League.
"I think it's been a long haul to catch up [in the standings]," Anzalone said. "We still look up and there's Charlotte and South Carolina.
"We're just not real sharp mentally right now. I think we've sort of hit the wall. I was listening to WFAN out of New York last night at 1:30 in the morning and Chuck Daly [New Jersey Nets coach], and he says every team in the NBA goes through it twice a year - a spot where you're playing but you really don't know what you're doing. You're doing it but it's not working [but] the team with a little bit more desire finds a way.
"I think that's what happened tonight. Sure, a lot of goals were pretty. But what led up to it was ugly."
Still it's two points in a game that Roanoke was supposed to win. The struggling Bombers are 14-24-4, having won only six times in 24 road games.
Pat Ferschweiler and Ilja Dubkov each scored twice as the Express put in seven goals in the final two periods to win handily.
The Express ran like the local for the first 20 minutes. Roanoke spent almost the entire first period in the Dayton end, primarily because of four power-play chances. But despite outshooting the Bombers 14-4, Roanoke went to the locker room trailing 1-0 after Dayton's Sergie Kharin burned the Express defense an unassisted breakaway.
The Express needed only 62 seconds of the second period to draw even. Tony Szabo took a feed from behind the Bombers' net from Ferschweiler and buried the puck past Dayton goalie Jeff Levy.
Szabo's goal ignited a period that revealed holes in both clubs' defense. Seventeen seconds after Roanoke tied it, Dayton regained the lead when Derek Donald whizzed a long slap shot from the top of the right circle past Ryder.
Dayton's lead lasted 53 seconds. Express defenseman Chris Potter fired an 18-foot wrist shot that struck Levy's left skate and deflected into the net to square it at 2.
Dayton's Tom Nemeth and Ferschweiler traded power-play goals before the Express skated off with a 4-3 lead after Oleg Yashin capped a rush at 19:04 by hoisting a 15-foot wrist shot over Levy's glove hand.
Dubkov redirected a pass from Mike Smith 57 seconds into the third period to make it 5-3. Ferschweiler scored on a 3-on-1 at 13:10. Dubkov's slapper with 2:07 left iced Roanoke's 15th win in 21 home games.
"It wasn't pretty, but we'll take it," Ferschweiler said. "We've had to work really hard to get here because we dug ourselves that early hole. Now, we've got to keep working and get over that next hump."
\ ICE CHIPS: Anzalone said he was happy with the play of defenseman Trevor Burgess, who arrived in town at 4:30 p.m. Thursday after being traded from Greensboro. "For a guy who got in late and didn't know our system, I thought he did a good job," Anzalone said. In return for Burgess, Roanoke traded its rights to inactive forward Daryl Noren, acquired from Wheeling in an earlier trade. Noren refused to come to the ECHL unless he could play for either Greensboro, Raleigh or Charlotte, Anzalone said. Burgess, 21, led all Monarchs defensemen in scoring with nine goals and 29 assists in 42 games. . . . Ryder, who made some key saves in the third period, has a record of 17-10-0 overall and 12-3-0 at home. . . . Lev Berdichevsky had his club-record goal-scoring streak snapped at seven games. . . . Roanoke gets Hampton Roads the next two days, tonight at Norfolk and Saturday at the civic center.
by CNB