THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411130246
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Most of the Hampton Roads Admirals set the timers on their VCRs Saturday to record their first appearance ever on regional cable television.
They'd be better off burning the tapes. This performance was rated X.
Shell-shocked by a five-goal outburst in a three-minute stretch, the Admirals were blown out of the Greensboro Coliseum, 6-2.
The loss was the fourth in a row for Hampton Roads (5-7-1), and came before the largest audience ever to see the Admirals - a coliseum crowd of 9,036 plus tens of thousands of viewers on Home Team Sports in five states and the District of Columbia.
It also was the second loss in a row to Greensboro, which beat the Admirals Friday in Scope.
Admirals coach John Brophy blasted his players Friday for what he called a lack of effort. A day later, he went a step farther.
``They've quit on us,'' he said. ``It's obviously gone to that situation. The team has quit.
``That's never happened to me. I've never had that happen. Every place I've coached, from the National Hockey League on down, I've never had a team quit. I've had teams that have lost, but never a team that's quit. Take your best shot at me. It's my fault. It's my fault when the team doesn't play.''
For most of the first period it appeared that the Admirals had come to play. Jim Brown and Brendan Curley both tallied goals that gave Hampton Roads a 2-1 lead.
But the three-minute nightmare began at 19:03, when Mark DeSantis slapped a shot through the legs of goaltender Patrick LaLime from near the blue line.
Just 15 seconds later, Darryl Noren deflected shot past an outstretched LaLime to make it 3-2, Greensboro. All five first-period goals came on power plays.
Greensboro needed no power plays to break it open in the second period. Jeremy Stevenson and Noren scored to give Greensboro a 5-2 lead after just 56 seconds. A minute later, Arthur Kupacs slapped in the Monarchs' sixth goal.
Brophy then pulled LaLime out of goal and inserted Shamus Gregga, who shut out the Monarchs the rest of the way.
``We pulled him because there were some funny bounces, some bad goals,'' Brophy said. ``But we were giving Greensboro wide-open shots on LaLime. We weren't doing much to help him.''
The third period deteriorated into a series of shoving matches and fights. There six major penalties for fighting and two game misconducts among 18 third-period penalties.
Greensboro head coach Jeff Brubaker said the Admirals came looking for trouble, though in at least one instance that wasn't true. Admirals forward Rick Kowalsky was hit from behind by Greensboro's Colin Foley, who drew a game misconduct for pulling Kowalsky's jersey over his face and them pummeling him with punches.
``They were playing pretty dirty, nasty, chippy hockey right up until the final buzzer,'' Brubaker said. ``We should have expected it. We wouldn't have taken losing two in a row to a team lying down, and they certainly didn't. Was it a good show for television? I guess it was. It wasn't high-brow. You saw some good goals, you saw some rough stuff. You saw ECHL hockey.
``I'll say this about the Admirals: We should have known they would come gunning for us in the third period. It's my fault. All they wanted to do in the third period was to leave with a pound of flesh, and they got their pound of flesh.'' by CNB