Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 13, 1994 TAG: 9402130192
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Ronaoke Express faced your basic trifecta gut-check Saturday night at the Roanoke Civic Center.
"With everything that's gone on lately, this was one big hockey game for this team," said Frank Anzalone, the Express' coach. "If there ever was a game that we absolutely had to win, it was this one. We had to get it done."
Much to the delight of the Roanoke-record 8,524 fans on hand and to the relief of the Express, the hosts did just that, nipping the Louisville IceHawks 3-2 in the East Coast Hockey League.
The victory helped restore the confidence of a club jolted in the past week by the loan and all-but-official loss of top forward Leve Berdichevsky to Adirondack (American Hockey League), not to mention Friday's embarrassing late-game choke job in a 5-4 overtime loss to Raleigh.
"It's been tough times," Anzalone said.
"First, Lev Berdichevsky is gone. He's not coming back. I expect to hear in the next few hours from Eric Cooperman [his agent] that Lev has signed an American Hockey League contract, so that's over with.
"Then there was last night. It was one of the two or three worst losses I've ever experienced in coaching [Roanoke blew a three-goal lead in the final 5 minutes, 15 seconds]. In that game, I saw everything we've been trying to build here disintegrate. I didn't know if the whole program was going up in smoke or what.
"So, I really didn't know how we'd react tonight. I knew only one thing: We had to somehow get it done."
The Express got it done - the hard way. The pesky IceHawks (12-31-7) were much better their than record on this night.
Trailing 2-1 after one period, Roanoke (28-21-3) dominated the final 40 minutes, outshooting the IceHawks 39-9. But Louisville goalie Chris Clifford made it most difficult, stopping all but three of 48 shots.
Chris Potter supplied the game-winning goal with 25 seconds left in the second period, taking a perfect cross-ice pass from Mike Smith in the right slot and stuffing the puck past Clifford.
"It was great pass by Smitty," Potter said. "He put the puck right on my stick where I couldn't miss the net. If I would have, I would have died right there."
The Express, which moved back ahead of South Carolina into fifth place in the ECHL's East Division with the victory, might have seen its entire season derailed with a loss.
"Face it, we're supposed to beat Louisville," said Roanoke's Roger Larche, who tied the score at 2 with a rebound goal at 12:43 of the second period.
"We needed this one bad - for us and our fans. We'd let the fans down twice before in games with big crowds [the Express had failed to win both times it had drawn 7,000-plus]. We couldn't let 'em down again."
Things didn't exactly start the way Roanoke had in mind.
The IceHawks, coming off a 9-1 shellacking in Richmond on Friday night, took it to Roanoke in the first period.
Louisville broke on top at the 8:15 mark, when George Zajankala skated past Ilja Dubkov, took a centering feed from Brian Cook, and beat Express goalie Dan Ryder to complete a three-on-two break.
Roanoke got even 56 seconds later. After Tony Szabo was taken down by defender Rob Sumner on a rush, the puck slid straight to trailing teammate Pat Ferschweiler, who promptly put it past Clifford.
But Louisville remained undaunted in front of a hostile crowd. The visitors regained the lead with 3:21 left in the period when Mike Fiset took a nice centering pass from Scott Kelsey on the fly and beat Ryder upstairs.
"We didn't figure Louisville to come out so strong," Larche said. "But from that point, we decided it was time to take over."
Mission accomplished.
"If we'd lost tonight, it would've really hurt," Anzalone said. "Catastrophic? Yeah, I'd say so.
"Yeah, it was a big gut-check. We passed, I guess. Now we've got to go on. There's a lot of work ahead."
\ ICE CHIPS: The throng saw its share of rough stuff. Louisville's Brad Treliving set the tone for the evening when he was tossed after bumping several Express players in pregame warmups. With 17 seconds left in the game, Ryder was tossed for being the third man in a tussle between Jeff Jestadt and Zajankala. Paul Cohen had to enter the game cold and work the final 17 seconds. . . . Berdichevsky remains hot with Adirondack. He scored again Saturday, his fourth goal in as many AHL games. The Russian's plus-minus for the four games is plus-11. . . . Roanoke's power play was 0-for-6 Saturday and is scoreless in its past 22 opportunities at home.
by CNB