ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 7, 1997 TAG: 9704070153
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
It wasn't about losing a needed hour of rest Sunday for the Roanoke Express.
It was rather - in a third game in 50 hours - a matter of seconds of savings time the Express could have used.
After 281 minutes and 15 seconds of pulsating playoff hockey, the Express' fourth season ended suddenly in appropriate and dramatic fashion at the Roanoke Civic Center.
There were 16.1 seconds left in regulation of Game 4 when Hampton Roads defender Chris Phelps finished the first-round series with a blue-line blast for a 4-3 victory.
It all happened before the smallest crowd of the season, and the Admirals did it by beating the best goalie in ECHL playoff history, Dave Gagnon.
Gagnon is 23-4-1 with three teams in the ECHL's postseason, and few losses could be as stunning as the two he felt in this series. They probably were just as painful as the strained groin on which he gamely played Sunday.
In the opener, the Express lost 4-3 in 101 minutes, 31 seconds. In Game 4, the score was the same.
Or, as Express broadcast play-by-play voice Mitch Peacock described the end: ``It came in stunning and shocking fashion.''
That was a perfect call.
In the ECHL's eight seasons, Roanoke has made it past round one of the playoffs only in 1995, when it lost in the quarterfinals to eventual Riley Cup champion Richmond.
It was another year of consistent success for the Express, who have won 37, 39, 36 and 38 games in their four regular seasons under coach Frank Anzalone.
Again, it was a team no one wanted to play in the playoffs, perhaps because the Express' consistent, mistake-limiting, conservative style defines what playoff hockey usually is.
The team that bowed out Sunday also wasn't the same team that took Roanoke to its success. The loss last month of center Wayne Strachan, defenseman Michael Smith and left wing Jeff Cowan to affiliate call-ups diminished the club.
From mid-November - and the return of Russian center Ilya Dubkov - through March 8, the Express was 29-13-3. The club was only 4-5-2 in its final 11 games.
The improved affiliations with Calgary (NHL) and Manitoba (IHL) giveth and taketh away. Even with the late-season dropoff, Anzalone's team still finished among the top one-third of the league's 23 clubs.
It did little good being the league's No. 7 seed because of the ECHL's inane intradivisional playoff format, reducing the importance of the regular season.
To get to the ECHL semifinals, all the Express needed was to beat the second-best team in the league, and then the Brabham Cup regular-season victor, South Carolina.
The Express emerged from a tumultous off-season with upheaval and rancor among its management to post another positive experience. Attendance was off only slightly for the year, making Sunday's gathering of 2,371 a disappointing finish, too.
Anzalone's recruiting skills and coaching tenor remain one of the franchise's strengths. Yes, the club could find a coach who would be more popular with the public, but if a replacment weren't as sound in recruiting and coaching, Roanoke would be Erie - which is gone from the league, much less the playoffs.
It again will be a crucial off-season for the franchise, which through all of the front-office machinations and ego trips seems to have lost its focus. The Express rebuilt hockey's melting reputation here with good business sense and teamwork.
The board of directors and management should remember that. Hockey is successful in these parts because it has been marketed properly.
What fills seats, however, is winning games. The Express only has to find a way to do that more in April.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 linesby CNB