ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604290095
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: HOCKEY
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR.
Important matters such as signing the coach to a contract extension, hiring a radio broadcaster and marketing director, seeking an affiliation with a team in a higher league and working with investors on getting an ice rink built in the Roanoke Valley did not seem so pressing to the Roanoke Express during the past week.
The power play by minority owners that ousted team president John Gagnon may have resolved some key concerns for most of the East Coast Hockey League club's seven owners, but it did not address any of the aforementioned issues.
Pierre Paiement, the Express' general manager, already had a lot of work to do - not including saving his own skin. He kept his job only after admitting to his co-owners that he had been involved with the start-up of the Gagnon-owned Mississippi Sea Wolves, an involvement that angered some of the team's shareholders.
Now, the real work begins for Paiement. He was in the process of negotiating a one-year contract extension for head coach Frank Anzalone when he and Gagnon were voted out as officers on the team's board of directors on April 19.
On Tuesday, when Paiement publicly professed his involvement with the Mississippi expansion team, he acknowledged working out a new contract with Anzalone had fallen by the wayside.
Express vice president Joe Steffen, a Blacksburg lawyer who spearheaded the movement to dump Gagnon and Paiement, said he hoped business would return to normal quickly.
``I know we've put a lot of things on the back burner,'' said Steffen, who met privately with Anzalone during the past week. ``I know Frank wants a little more direction on his contract. We need to give him that.''
Anzalone says all he wants is security. After guiding the Express to playoff appearances in each of the team's three seasons, he feels he deserves it.
However, the civil strife that nearly wrecked the Express' ownership group may only have subsided temporarily. Gagnon, who still owns 50 percent of the team, is not expected to give up his role as a major player without at least one more battle.
At a time when the Express needs to be recruiting players for next season (most of the team's veterans will not be returning) and trying to line up an affiliation that could help the team in that area, the owners are fighting, the coach is unsigned beyond 1997 and the general manager is just glad to have a job.
Things need to return to a sense of normalcy in the Starkey Road offices of the Express.
Soon.
RILEY CUP FINALS: Jeff Brubaker has done it again. After a mediocre regular season in Jacksonville, Brubaker has proven once again he is the best coach in the league come playoff time.
Brubaker's Lizard Kings advanced to the Riley Cup finals against the Charlotte Checkers by knocking off the league's top two regular-season teams, Richmond and Toledo. Jacksonville was given little chance to beat the defending champion Renegades, but the curse of the Brabham Cup struck again as the Lizard Kings ousted the regular-season champs in the second round.
So, it should have come as no surprise when Jacksonville upset Toledo three games to two in their semifinal series. Brubaker didn't become the winningest coach in the history of the ECHL playoffs by backing down from long odds. Come playoff time, Brubaker's physical style of play wears down the opposition.
That's why his teams have won 43 playoff games and he is coaching in his fourth Riley Cup championship series. With the Greensboro Monarchs, Brubaker coached in three Riley Cup finals and won a championship in 1990, but he found himself out of work when that franchise moved up to the American Hockey League this season.
The Charlotte-Jacksonville matchup is interesting because the Checkers never have beaten Brubaker in the playoffs. Brubaker certainly is familiar with the Checkers' top line of Darryl Noren, Shawn Wheeler and Phil Berger. That line was a mainstay of some of Brubaker's Greensboro teams.
The best-of-seven finals began Saturday. The rest of the schedule is as follows: Game 2, Tuesday in Charlotte, 7 p.m.; Game 3, Wednesday in Jacksonville, 7:30 p.m.; Game 4, Thursday in Jacksonville, 7:30 p.m.; Game 5 (if necessary), May 6 in Jacksonville, 7:30 p.m.; Game 6 (if necessary), May 10 in Charlotte, 7:30 p.m.; Game 7 (if necessary), May 11 in Charlotte, 7:30 p.m.
AROUND THE ECHL: The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk reported this past week that Hampton Roads Admirals owner Blake Cullen has sold the team to a pair of local investors.
Cullen was asking $2.8 million for the team, but it was not known how much he would receive from Mark Garcea and Page Johnson, two Tidewater-area businessmen.
Former Richmond owner Allen B. Harvie Jr., who has announced plans to build a series of ice rinks in Hampton Roads, made a late bid to buy the team. ...
The Dayton Bombers filed suit against Ticketmaster, the Colonial Hockey League's Dayton Ice Bandits and Hara Arena, their former home rink, claiming the Ice Bandits used the Bombers' season-ticket list to solicit their own season tickets.
The Bombers, who will play at the Nutter Center on the campus of Wright State University next season, allege the Ice Bandits, who will play at Hara Arena, obtained a list of Bombers season-ticket holders from Ticketmaster and mailed brochures to those people.
``Hara has taken the work product of the Bombers and used it for its own team,'' said Bud Gingher, the Bombers' president.
The case will be heard in May.
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