ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603110085
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: HOCKEY
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR.
The Roanoke Express has become accustomed to abbreviated practices in recent weeks.
Abbreviated simply to pract. That's because there's been no ice for practice.
Moments after the Express ended a five-game winless streak with a 3-2 victory over Mobile on Tuesday, coach Frank Anzalone already was worrying about how to get his team ready for Friday's meeting with the high-powered Charlotte Checkers without the luxury of giving his team an on-ice workout until 24 hours before the game.
The Roanoke Civic Center was the site of a Stars on Ice show this past week, so the Express players had to work out their day-after kinks in the weight rooms and on the Stairmasters at the downtown YMCA.
``We can't get ice,'' Anzalone said. ``Unless we want to be in the figure-skating exhibition'' at the civic center.
Hopefully for the Express, those days of missing ice time soon will be a thing of the past. Express president John Gagnon confirmed this week a private contractor is working on opening an ice rink near downtown by late summer.
``It looks pretty good,'' Gagnon said. ``I think we're finally going to get it done.''
Finding practice ice for the Express has been a problem for three years, and it has grown worse in the past couple of weeks. The team had a three-day break in the middle of a five-game trip, but it couldn't practice at home and wound up busing to Richmond early because the civic center was in use.
Then, this past Monday, the team had to ride nearly three hours to Hillsborough, N.C., for practice because the civic center was cleaning up from an annual boat show.
``Long,'' is the only word Anzalone used to describe Monday's excursion.
The fact the Express sometimes has no practice ice hardly is the civic center management's fault. The building exists to serve the public and it has much more on its plate than just hockey games and practices. The civic center always will play host to concerts, basketball games, gun shows, car shows and other events.
The problem for the Express and for other disgruntled ice skaters in the region is there is no alternate facility to use on the days when the civic center is unavailable.
Finally, that facility may be on the way.
BELOW ZERO: Some of the most eye-popping numbers on the Express' stat sheet fall under the plus-minus ratings, where only one player, Chris Potter, was on the positive side heading into the weekend.
The plus-minus rating is an indicator of how many even-strength goals a player's team scores or gives up when he is on the ice. If the team scores when he's on the ice, he gets a point. If the team gives up a goal, he loses a point.
With two weeks left in the regular season, some of the plus-minus ratings read like the temperatures from January's cold snap. Defenseman Dave Stewart, the team's captain, was at minus-19 before Friday, defenseman Tim Hanley was at minus-17 and All-Star right wing Tim Christian was at minus-16.
Usually, one doesn't see those kinds of figures on a team with a winning record. However, the Express has been a low-scoring team this season, 18 of its 26 losses have come by three goals or more and 10 of its 32 victories have come in shootouts. All those factors have combined to keep the plus-minus numbers down.
Ironically, Potter, whose plus-9 rating leads the team, had a team-worst minus-14 last season as a defenseman. The switch to forward this season obviously has been a plus for him.
HIGH-SCORING GOALIES: Charlotte goalie Nick Vitucci scored a goal late in the Checkers' 6-4 victory over Louisville on March 6, the same night Detroit Red Wings netminder Chris Osgood scored with 11 seconds left in a 4-2 victory over the Hartford Whalers. Vitucci sent the puck the length of the ice and his Louisville counterpart, Alain Morissette, knocked the puck into his own net.
Both shots made the ``ESPN SportsCenter'' highlight reel the next day.
Osgood's rare goal was the first scored by an NHL goalie in a regular-season game since Philadelphia's Ron Hextall did it Dec.8, 1987.
Goalie goals are not as infrequent in the ECHL, where Vitucci and Erie's Olie Sundstrom have scored this season alone. Hampton Roads' Corwin Saurdiff scored a goal last season.
ICE CHIPS: Nashville's Hugo Belanger, the first ECHL player to surpass 100 points in a season in two years, was named the ECHL/Sherwood Hockey Company player of the month for February. Belanger leads the ECHL with 120 points in 58 games. He is first in assists (75), third in goals (45) and second in power-play goals (21). ... Toledo goalie David Goverde went 9-0-1 in February, his second consecutive month without a loss in regulation time. ... Hampton Roads, which entertains the Express today, has been sparked by the addition of goalie Mike Torchia, who played six games with NHL's Dallas Stars last season. Torchia, 23, had backstopped the Admirals' past four victories through Thursday.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 linesby CNB