THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 24, 1994 TAG: 9412240473
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
The only thing the Hampton Roads Admirals ran short of Friday was hats.
John Porco and Jim Brown each tallied hat tricks, goaltender Patrick LaLime recorded his first professional shutout and the Admirals crushed the Charlotte Checkers, 8-0, at Scope.
Defensemen Rob MacInnis scored his first goal of the season and defenseman Chris Phelps added another in a game the Admirals dominated from the opening faceoff.
The Admirals outshot Charlotte, 48-25, and manhandled the Checkers physically.
That wasn't the case earlier this season when the Checkers won four of the first five games against Hampton Roads, including 5-2 and 5-1 decisions in Charlotte. The Admirals (14-11-3) have since won two in a row against the Checkers and nine of their last 14 overall.
``We're a physical team in great shape,'' Admirals coach John Brophy said. ``We're the most physical team in the league now.
``We put 50 shots at the net and got great goaltending. What else do you need?''
Not much on this night.
The victory was the most lopsided for Hampton Roads in 47 games, since an 11-1 victory over Louisville last February. It was the Admirals' first shutout 84 games and the first home shutout in 153 games - the last was an 11-0 victory over Richmond on Nov. 10, 1992.
``Our defense made it easy for me,'' LaLime said. ``Most of the time the puck was at the other end. I didn't have a hard shot all night.''
The same wasn't true for Charlotte goalie Jon Hillebrandt, who played well in spite of surrendering eight goals. He had 40 saves.
``We considered this game a must win,'' Brown said. ``I don't think they did.
``We're near the bottom of the division trying to get where they are. We really wanted this one.''
Not so for Charlotte after the Admirals took an early 3-0 lead.
``After the first few goals you could hear them talking about wanting to go home to see their families for Christmas,'' Brown said. ``You could hear them talking about it and see it in the way they were playing.''
Added Porco: ``They came out flat. We came out ready to play all 60 minutes. You can't say much more than that.''
The hat trick was the second of the season for Porco, whose third goal at 9:02 of the final period elicited a deluge of hats onto the ice from the Scope crowd of 7,005.
By the time Brown scored his third at 15:32, the crowd was nearly out of hats, and only a few fluttered on the ice. Moreover, officials were momentarily confused over who scored the goal and briefly credited it to Dennis McEwen.
``Q's a class guy and went right to the ref as soon as they announced it and told him it was my goal,'' Brown said.
``This feels great. To win like this is a good way to go into Christmas.''
Brophy took particular pleasure in the lopsided victory because of a brief war of words he carried on with Charlotte coach John Marks through the media after the 5-1 loss in Charlotte three weeks ago. Marks indirectly blamed Brophy for a large number of fights in that game and said that wasn't his style of play, but added that he had ``bullets'' to put into his ``gun'' if needed.
``We owed them that because of the things that happened in Charlotte, the things that were said, such as the remark about the bullets,'' Brophy said.
``He didn't have any bullets tonight.''
Nor any goals. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Paul Aiken, Staff
Charlotte Checkers defenseman Travis Tucker, left, uses some unusual
stick work and sends Admirals center Jim Brown reeling Friday night
at Scope.
by CNB