Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411210083
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
For the second time in two nights at the Roanoke Civic Center, the Express was shot down in a shootout, losing 4-3 to the Raleigh IceCaps before a crowd of 6,201 Saturday night.
Roanoke, which lost 3-2 to Richmond in a shootout Friday, has seen six of its past seven games settled by the East Coast Hockey League's version of Russian roulette. On three of the six occasions, the gun has gone off in the Express' hands.
``I don't care if I ever see another one of the damned things,'' said Roanoke goaltender Dave Gagnon, who was beaten by two of the five Raleigh shooters.
``I can't win one. I've lost three of 'em now. If we don't stop going into these shootouts, we're going to be 7-3-20 pretty soon.''
Gagnon, who stopped all 20 shots he faced in regulation and the five-minute overtime after relieving struggling Dan Ryder with 4 minutes, 40 seconds left in the first period, was beaten to his left twice in the shootout.
Kevin Riehl took Gagnon top shelf with a forehand, and Lenny Pereira beat him with a low forehand.
Roanoke's only shootout goal came from Russian rookie Rouslan Toujikov, who beat IceCaps goalie Brad Mullahy with a low forehand to the glove side.
The shootout loss was deflating for a Roanoke club that rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period to tie on a pair of goals by Jeff Jestadt.
While it ran its regulation unbeaten streak to a franchise-record nine games - Roanoke is 6-0-3 in that span - the Express keeps giving away valuable points in the standings to its East Division rivals. Raleigh (8-6-2) moved into second place in the tightly bunched East - not counting runaway Richmond (13-0-2) - with its fourth consecutive victory.
``It shouldn't really be coming down to shootouts,'' said Express coach Frank Anzalone, whose 7-3-3 club matched its paltry offensive average of three goals again.
``We don't do anything for two periods, Raleigh got their typical lead and nursed it the rest of the way. We severely underachieved and these are points we are going to need if we're going to be in the playoffs and we blew the points..
``Last night, you can understand against Richmond. But tonight we faced a team a little short of players and we just didn't get the job done. For the first time now, I seriously question this hockey club and where it's headed. It's not a very positive situation.
``It would have been a great situation to win this one with a third-period comeback. But we got to the shootouts and we don't get it done there, either.''
While the Express napped early, the IceCaps took advantage, scoring twice in a 91-second span in the game's first 41/2 minutes to take charge.
Lyle Wildgoose got Raleigh on the board at the 3:05 mark, taking a centering pass from Scott MacNair and beating Ryder with a 15-foot wrist shot.
The IceCaps made it 2-0 at the 4:36 mark, when Riehl picked up teammate Anton Federov's errant backhand and stuffed the puck past Ryder from the slot.
After Roanoke closed to 2-1 on a Toujikov power-play goal at 14:27, Raleigh countered 53 seconds later on Derek Linnell's power-play deflection in the slot.
Anzalone then pulled Ryder, who had faced only eight shots, and brought Gagnon off the bench.
Gagnon kept the IceCaps at bay long enough for Jestadt, who scored twice including a rebound with 7:07 left, to tie the score at 3.
Then came the shootout. And Roanoke, again, shot itself in the foot.
``We've simply got to find a way to score more than three goals a game,'' Jestadt said. ``We're just killing Gags [Gagnon] and Ryder. They're getting old from all these close games and shootouts.''
ICE CHIPS: The Express placed forward Marty Schriner (fractured left orbital bone) on the 14-day injured reserve list Saturday. Schriner suffered the injury two weeks ago when he was leveled with an unpenalized cross-check by Raleigh's John Blessman. Schriner played in two road games before learning Friday afternoon in a doctor's visit that a bone below his left eye was broken. The rookie forward will undergo surgery this week and will be out of the lineup indefinitely. With Schriner out, Anzalone revoked his Friday waiver of forward Steve Phillips. ... Anzalone's first-period yank of Ryder marked the first time this season the Roanoke coach has gone to the bullpen in a game. Anzalone earned the nickname ``Captain Hook'' last season while replacing his starting goalie 17 times in 68 regular-season games. ... The Express drew 13,483 for the weekend doubleheader, pushing its average attendance to an all-time high of 5,766. ... The Express boarded the bus after the game for Richmond, where it faces the runaway East Division-leading Renegades today in a 3 p.m. matinee.
by CNB