ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996 TAG: 9602290086
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
The Express' road woes continued Wednesday night as Trevor Robins stopped all 30 Roanoke shots, leading the Richmond Renegades to a 6-0 victory in the East Coast Hockey League.
It was only the third regular-season shutout in Express history, and the first since Richmond won 5-0 in Roanoke's last regular-season home game of the 1994-95 season.
Robins, playing in his fourth game for the Renegades since being acquired from Jacksonville, turned aside 15 relatively harmless first-period shots by the Express, a shorthanded breakaway by Jeff Jestadt in the second period and little else in winning for the third time in four decisions with Richmond.
The Renegades (41-8-11) opened the scoring early in the first period and, as usual against the Express (31-25-3), scored their goals in bunches.
Jay Murphy scored his 23rd goal of the season, knocking the puck just over the goal line behind Express goalie Matt DelGuidice on a rebound of a Greg Hadden shot 5:54 into the game. Only 1:25 later, Trevor Senn chased after his own dump in, spun and found Mike Taylor cruising through the slot untouched. Taylor roofed his 23rd goal of the season to produce a quick 2-0 lead. Roanoke, the team with the fewest shots on goal in the ECHL, outshot the league's No.1 team in that statistic 15-7 in the period.
The Renegades increased their lead to 3-0 on a power-play goal early in the second period. With the man advantage winding down, the Express' Chris Potter had an easy opportunity to clear the zone, but failed. Brian Goudie's right-point wrist shot was deflected in by Garry Gulash from the edge of the crease with eight seconds remaining on the penalty. Gulash proceeded to delight the crowd by flopping on his rear end on a mad dash down the ice in celebration, just as he had on his only other goal of the season in November.
Richmond scored on another second-period power play to take a 4-0 lead. Seconds after Robins stopped Jestadt's breakaway, Dmitri Pankov, stationed at the bottom of the right circle, one-timed a diagonal back-door feed from Greg Hadden at 15:28.
Jason Mallon finished a three-on-two rush with Todd Sparks, and Brian Mueller did likewise with Senn early in the third to make it a 6-0 lead on the Renegade's 22nd and 23rd shots of the game.
With the victory, Richmond (41-8-11 ) won the season series against the Express six games to four, with all of Roanoke's victories coming in shootouts.
The skid stands at four for the Express (31-25-3), and Roanoke has won only three of its past 18 (3-12-3) away from the Roanoke Civic Center. The Express has won its past seven at home.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB