Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 11, 1995 TAG: 9510110082
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Express ended the preseason slate with its third win in as many games by scoring four consecutive goals Tuesday night in beating Hampton Roads 4-3 before a crowd of 3,151 at the Roanoke Civic Center. (Summary in Scoreboard. B3)
It was the 1995-96 Roanoke debut for a team that clobbered Hampton Roads 7-3 last Friday and won 3-1 at Charlotte on Saturday. The defending Riley Cup champion Richmond Renegades come to town for the regular-season opener on Friday.
``It doesn't make a lot of difference,'' said Roanoke's Jeff Jablonski, who scored two goals, including the game-winner, and had an assist. ``A lot of teams are giving some players some last looks, so it's not like a real regular-season game. The preseason, the regular season and the playoffs are all three very different.''
It was obvious that the game was unlike a regular-season game for several reasons. First, Hampton Roads scored its second goal to take a 2-0 lead when David St. Pierre buried an empty-netter with 1 second left in the period.
Express coach Frank Anzalone had pulled goalie Matt DelGuidice with 13 seconds left to see how the team would respond in a 6-on-5 situation and whether it could control the puck in its own zone.
``Let's be honest,'' Anzalone said. ``I don't do that in a real game.''
Hampton Roads coach John Brophy probably would not have pulled goalie Corwin Saurdiff midway through the second period in a real game, either. Saurdiff had stopped all 22 shots fired his way, but both teams changed goalies in the second.
Hampton Roads led 3-0 early in the third period, but Roanoke scored four goals against Darryle Paquette, who replaced Saurdiff.
Roanoke tied it on Dave Holum's goal with 17:37 left in the third. With the Admirals caught in a line shift, Jason Clarke raced down the right side and centered back to Holum, who beat Paquette with a blast from the point.
Jablonski, who is making a comeback to professional hockey after a year spent working as a youth hockey instructor, capped the scoring by knocking in the game-winner off a nice Trevor Dodman assist from the left circle with 16:40 left.
Hampton Roads scored first when Rick Kowalsky corralled the puck after it took a wild bounce of the endboards and shot into a goal that had been vacated when DelGuidice went behind the net to recover the puck.
St. Pierre scored the empty-netter and Jeff Kostuch scored a power-play goal to make it 3-0 in the second. Jablonski got the Express on the board by burying an assist from Ilya Dubkov at the 11:47 mark, then he returned the favor by setting up Dubkov 2 1/2 minutes later to make it 3-2.
Mike Parson, who relieved DelGuidice in the second period, stopped 14 shots in recording the win.
by CNB