ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997 TAG: 9703110037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. THE ROANOKE TIMES
All the goals come in the first period as the Express wins its fourth straight.
Stragglers and the fashionably late missed some fine hockey action Saturday night.
Those who failed to snuggle into their Roanoke Civic Center seats within the first 97 seconds of the Roanoke Express' 4-2 victory over the Raleigh IceCaps missed the following:
A fight between Roanoke's Sean Brown and Raleigh's Dog Mann that began just as the puck was plummeting iceward for the opening faceoff.
Three goals, two of them by the Express, including ...
J eff Jablonski's 43rd goal of the season, which tied the Express' single-season record.
There was more. Another goal by Roanoke and another by Raleigh, which came with one-tenth of a second left in the period.
And that was it. All the scoring the game could bear in 19 minutes, 59.9 seconds.
``I think we thought it was going to be that easy all night,'' Jablonski said.
It wasn't, but the Express had done enough damage to win its fourth consecutive game and inch closer to the coveted third-place spot in the East Coast Hockey League's East Division standings. The Express has 72 points, two behind third-place Richmond, which lost 3-0 to the Dayton Bombers.
``Obviously, we're shooting for something,'' said Express defenseman Dave Stewart, who scored Roanoke's first goal 26 seconds into the game. ``We want to get into third place rather stay where we are.''
The third-place team could receive a favorable seeding in the playoffs and possibly play outside the division. That would be an easier task than facing Hampton Roads or South Carolina in the opening round. The Express travels to Richmond on Monday.
``We're ready for them,'' Stewart said. ``The time to do it is now.''
That's probably what Brown was thinking when Mann gave him a slight shove before the opening faceoff. The two scrapped seven seconds into the game, with Brown getting the best of Mann after taking a punch that left him with a shiner.
``He just nudged me before the faceoff,'' Brown said. ``I don't know if he was trying to get his team going or what. It seemed like it gave us a little jump instead.''
That was evident when Stewart scored 19 seconds later. At the 1:20 mark, Jablonski raced down the ice and deposited a backhand through the pads of Raleigh goalie Patrick Charbonneau to tie the Express record Jeff Jestadt established in 1993-94.
Seventeen second later, Raleigh's Steve Potvin got Raleigh on the board, before some sense of normalcy was restored for about seven minutes.
Then, Tim Christian pounced on the puck in the crease and lifted a shot over Charbonneau following short-range attempts by Jeff Loder and Brown at 8:41.
Defenseman Matt O'Dette scored on a drive from the top of the left circle to make it 4-1 with 1:42 left, and the Express put its scoring sticks in the closet.
That was all right, even though Raleigh's Kris Miller smacked a shot from between the faceoff circles that eluded Express goalie Dave Gagnon with one-tenth of a second remaining in the period.
``That goal made things interesting,'' said Express coach Frank Anzalone. ``After that, we played like a tired team, but like a smart, tired team. We checked very well for about 15 minutes of the third period.''
And Gagnon stopped the final 25 shots he saw en route to his 31st victory of the season.
ICE CHIPS: The Express gave up a tying goal with 38 seconds left in the third period, but bounced back for a 6-5 shootout victory over the Charlotte Checkers on Friday night at the Roanoke Civic Center. Jablonski, Michael Smith, Christian, Ilya Dubkov and Brown scored for Roanoke in regulation play, and Chris Lipsett had the winner in the shootout. Christian, who had four goals and eight assists in February, was honored as the Express offensive player of the month by the Roanoke Valley Hockey Boosters. Duane Harmer was named defensive player of the month. The club also recognized Jablonski's four-goal game Feb.21 and Jeff Loder's hat trick Feb. 9.... Roanoke added forward Dan Tompkins to the roster earlier this week. Tompkins was invited to the Calgary Flames' training camp, but he injured a knee and could not attend. He resumed skating just a couple of weeks ago. ... The Express is 28-7-1 when scoring first. NOTE: please see microfilm for scores.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB