Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 8, 1995 TAG: 9503080124
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Express ascended to the top of the ECHL's East Division with a 5-2 victory over the Greensboro Monarchs on Tuesday night.
The Express scored three goals in the third period and Daniel Berthiaume, the league's hottest goalie, stopped 20 of 22 shots in winning his ninth straight game.
The Express won its fourth consecutive game and moved into a first-place tie with Richmond, idle Tuesday. Roanoke (35-16-9), which is 12-2-2 in its last 16 games, and Richmond both have 79 points.
Two weeks ago, the Express was 11 points behind the Renegades. As the final seconds ticked away, some of the 4,639 spectators began chanting, ``First place, first place, first place.''
``That's playoff hockey,'' said Derek Laxdal, Roanoke's right wing and assistant coach.
Greensboro is one of three East Division teams - along with Hampton Roads and Charlotte - rumored to be headed to the American Hockey League next season. Roanoke, meanwhile, will try to stay put atop the division tonight when it travels to Hampton Roads. Richmond entertains Johnstown.
``You know, this team is drained,'' said Frank Anzalone, Roanoke's coach. ``All they've been thinking is `win, win, win,' every time they take the ice. They're tired emotionally. Give 'em a break, they haven't lost.''
Laxdal provided the go-ahead goal when he popped in a rebound with 18 minutes, 20 seconds left in the game. The teams were in a 4-on-4 situation when Mark Luger launched a hard shot from inside the blue line that bounced off the pads of Greensboro goalie Rob Laurie and right to Laxdal, who wristed the puck inside the left post.
Roanoke followed with two more scores. First, Darwin McClelland pulled a loose puck out of the slot and sent a wrist shot past Laurie's stick side to make it 4-2 with 11:06 to play. Craig Herr capped the scoring with a shot from the right circle with 10:01 remaining.
The Express dominated the third period. In addition to scoring three times on 16 third-period shots, Roanoke held Greensboro (27-26-8) to just two shots in the third.
``We were 20 minutes away from something [first place] we've been working for all year,'' said defenseman Dave Stewart, the team's captain. ``We tried to shut them down. We knew we couldn't let them take a lot of shots.''
Of course, the Express hasn't had to worry about opposing shots finding the net when Berthiaume is in goal. Tuesday marked the 12th time in 13 games that Berthiaume has allowed two goals or fewer. His record is 17-2-2 overall, 11-1-1 since joining the Express a month ago.
Berthiaume made several key stops in the second period when Greensboro was forcing the action. He stopped three point-blank attempts in the period, including a nifty glove save of Hugo Proulx's one-timer off a rebound.
The only shot he couldn't stop in the period was Davis Payne's drive from the left circle that slid through Berthiaume's pads to tie it 2-2 at the 2:51 mark.
``Goaltending was the story tonight,'' said Greensboro coach Jeff Brubaker, who yanked Peter Skudra, his starter, after the first period.
``Berthiaume stopped us when we were charging hard. We played well enough in the second period to bust it wide open. We controlled the second period but Berthiaume stopped us. They controlled the third period but we didn't stop them.''
Roanoke's scoring outburst followed a lackluster second period. The Express didn't score on any of its 12 second-period shots and were sluggish on the power play.
After scoring on its first power play of the game, when Tony Szabo skated in from the left circle and sent a shot through Skudra's pads to make it 2-0, the Express failed on its next five power plays.
``We had some flat spots,'' said Anzalone. ``We're fortunate we didn't give up 30 shots in the flat spots.''
The Express lit the red light early, as Joe Hawley scored on the game's first shift. Herr dug the puck out of the corner and centered to a wide-open Hawley, who wristed a shot from the slot past Skudra 24 seconds into the game.
The Monarchs got on the board when Francois Leroux deflected a Doug Evans pass into the net at the 7:01 mark of the first period to make it 2-1.
by CNB