Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 1, 1995 TAG: 9502010085
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This time, not even the familiar third-period shenanigans could derail the Roanoke Express.
The Express, which has watched a slew of three-goal leads and potential victories evaporate in recent weeks, jumped on the Huntington Blizzard early and held on for a 6-3 East Coast Hockey League victory Tuesday night at the Roanoke Civic Center.
Craig Herr and Marty Schriner had a pair of goals each and Mark Luger lodged three assists as Roanoke (23-12-7) won for the fourth time in six games.
Roanoke would be in the midst of a six-game winning streak had it not blown late leads against Erie and Johnstown in the past nine days.
``I was just thinking about that,'' Herr said. ``Everybody says Richmond is running away with this, but we could be right there.''
The Express will be right there - in Richmond, that is. Roanoke plays tonight at Hampton Roads in the first game of an arduous road trek that features stops in Richmond and Charlotte, N.C.
Even though he watched his team take a 3-0 lead against the imploding Blizzard, Frank Anzalone, Roanoke's coach, couldn't breathe easy until Oleg Yashin swept around the front of the goal and tapped in a backhand to make it 6-3 with 9 minutes, 5 seconds left in the game.
``You take nothing for granted,'' said Anzalone, whose team was playing the first of four games in five days.
``We knew ... we had to give Huntington respect ... we didn't want to come out flat. We had to get on them right away.''
The Express did that by scoring 20 seconds into the game when Herr scored off a Derek Laxdal feed. Laxdal took a give-and-go pass from Herr, walked in from the left side and sent a pass to Herr just to the right of the crease.
The Express led 3-0 before the game was 13 minutes old.
As has been its recent habit, Roanoke made things interesting in the third period. First, Huntington (20-20-2), which has won only twice in 13 games and has fallen out of the South Division race, pulled to 5-3 on a power play when Ed Henrich blasted a straight-on 30-footer over the left shoulder of Express goalie Dan Ryder.
The Blizzard had another power play at the 7:03 mark of the period when Roanoke's Tony Szabo was penalized for using an illegal stick. At Huntington's request, game officials measured the blade of Szabo's stick and found it to be approximately one-eighth of an inch too wide.
``I don't know how Szabo is supposed to know that,'' Anzalone said. ``That's a stick manufacturer's problem. I need to check with security, because somebody must have gotten a look at his stick.''
Thanks to Herr and Schriner, the Express didn't get the short end of the stick. Herr ran his streak of consecutive games with a point to nine and Schriner, boosted by his recent switch from wing to center, scored his fourth and fifth goals this season, three of which have come in the past two games.
``I've hit a lot of posts this year,'' said Schriner, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound left-hander. ``Really, I'm not a sharpshooter. My goals have come from in close. If I'm going to get goals, I have to drive.''
Roanoke scored its first five goals against Huntington goalie Jason Currie, who kept his personal streak alive by getting yanked for the fourth time in as many starts since joining the Blizzard from Richmond this month.
Huntington, which lost leading scorer Jim Bermingham and league-leading goalie Chris Gordon to the American Hockey League, pulled to 3-1 when Jim Solly poked a rebound into an open net after Ryder blocked Mark Franks' shot from the left corner.
Roanoke went ahead 4-1 when Szabo scored a power-play goal after Herr cleared an opening in the middle, and Schriner made it 5-1 with a shot that deflected off Currie's stick.
The first line of Herr, Szabo and Laxdal is playing well. Laxdal has 31 points in his past 26 games, and Szabo has five goals in six games.
``We're clicking,'' Herr said.
\ see microfilm for box score
by CNB