THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9501010220
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
In spite of the relatively fight-free contest between Hampton Roads and Greensboro on Friday night, not all is quiet on the Admirals-Monarchs front.
Greensboro coach Jeff Brubaker blasted the Admirals, coach John Brophy and the ``unruly'' crowds in Norfolk in an interview with the Greensboro News and Record.
Wednesday night, following a slugfest of a game in Norfolk in which his team lost and was assessed a majority of the penalty minutes, Brubaker blamed referee Steve LeMay for allowing the game to get out of control.
The Admirals blamed Brubaker and his players, saying they precipitated most of the fights.
Brubaker declined to blame the Admirals on Wednesday. But upon returning to Greensboro, he gave the Admirals equal billing with LeMay.
``It was (Admirals defenseman) Rob MacInnis that came over to our bench and began taunting our players while the officials are trying to sort out penalties,'' he said. ``After about two minutes of this, our guy takes a smack at him. so I'd say we were pretty disciplined.
``Later, (Ron) Majic came straight off the bench and gave Dean Zayonce a two-handed baseball swing. The only reason he did was because Brophy sent him straight off the bench. So with Zayonce laying on the ice, Jeff Gabriel fights Majic. And now, all of a sudden, here we are being cast as the bad guys, and we just don't deserve it.
``In our whole system of play, fighting has nothing to do with it. I would say it's the rest of the league and not us that perpetuates this myth.''
Brubaker added that the Admirals' ``unruly crowds add to the dynamic.''
Brophy laughed when asked about Brubaker's comments.
``I've got nothing to say about that,'' he said, shaking his head. ``You saw the hockey game.''
Asked about the Admirals' crowds, he said: ``I love our so-called unruly fans, every damned one of them. I wish we had 15,000 seats so we had room for more of them.''
Following the Admirals' 6-5 victory at Greensboro on Friday, Brophy chafed when he was told that his players had predicted that the fights would be worse in Greensboro than they were in Norfolk.
``Worse than what? Worse than nothing,'' he said. ``It wasn't that tough a game. A few things happened, and if you have two teams playing against each other every second night, you're going to have some things happen.
``It wasn't an out-of-the-rule game. So we had some fights. What's the big deal?''
FALSE START: Admirals forward Jason MacIntyre beat Raleigh's Lenny Pereira in a three-lap speed-skating race between periods. MacIntyre was ahead when Pereira fell on the second lap.
However, Raleigh's Kevin Riehl, Anton Fedorov and Chic Pojar bested Chris Phelps, John Porco and Dennis McEwen in a three-man relay race that would have been protested by Hampton Roads had it not all been in fun. Riehl took a two-stride lead before the race began, and several shoving incidents between players went uncalled.
FAMILY TIES: The holidays brought family members of five Admirals to Hampton Roads last week.
The parents of Chris Phelps, Rod Taylor, Patrick LaLime and Jim Brown all attended games. So did Carl Halverson, brother of Trevor Halverson, who traveled with the team to Raleigh last week. He is a standout forward with the Barrie Colts junior team in Ontario. by CNB