
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 28, 1995                   TAG: 9510300091
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Staff report
DATELINE: HUNTINGTON, W.VA.                                LENGTH: Medium

EXPRESS PLOWS BLIZZARD WITH 5 SECONDS LEFT

Chris Potter's deflection of a Dave Holum centering feed with less than five seconds remaining in regulation gave the Roanoke Express a 4-3 road victory over the Huntington Blizzard in an East Coast Hockey League game Friday night.

Potter, who tallied just one goal all of last season, tapped in his second of the game and third of the season with 4.6 seconds to go. After a Blizzard dump-in on Express goaltender Matt DelGuidice, the Roanoke netminder flipped the puck off the right wing glass to Holum, who was stationed at his own blue line. The speedy Express center raced up the right wing, against the clock, and hit Potter with a tape-to-tape pass that Potter redirected with a backhand past Blizzard goalie Scott Taylor.

Roanoke (4-3-0) earlier had blown a 3-1, third-period lead, as the Blizzard scored two power-play goals to tie the score. All of Huntington's goals came with the man advantage.

Roanoke jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first period, as Craig Herr corralled a long, right-wing feed from Dave Stewart and blasted a slapper past Taylor on the stick side at 9:08. It marked the first time in three tries that the Express has scored the game's first goal and gone on to win this season.

Huntington's Andrei Bashkirov tied the game on a 5-on-3 power-play goal, one-timing a left-point feed from Trent Eigner past DelGuidice on the stick side at 16:25 of the first period. Potter rekindled the Express lead early in the second period. With just seven seconds remaining on an Express power play, Potter punched in a loose puck after a Jeff Jablonski centering feed for Michael Smith hit a Huntington defender and deflected right to Potter, who had all day to beat a fallen Taylor.

Leading 2-1 after two periods, the Express' leading goal scorer, Jason Clarke, extended the lead to 3-1 early in the third period. While on a two-on-two rush with Jeff Jestadt, Clarke hit Jestadt with a behind-the-back feed and crashed the net. Jestadt cradled the drop pass, edged his way up the left wing boards, and centered to a streaking Clarke, who quickly adjusted to his backhand and beat Taylor low on the glove side at 1:30 of the third period.

However, the Blizzard pounced on two third-period power-play opportunities. Mike Stone's goal off a Jared Bednar right-point rebound cut the lead to 3-2, and Bednar's center-point blast beat DelGuidice just 1:56 later tied the score.

by CNB