THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501290211
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Shorn of yet another key player that reduced their ranks to 15, two below the league limit, the Hampton Roads Admirals nonetheless nearly staged their most dramatic comeback of the season Saturday.
Trailing, 4-0, early in the third period, the Admirals scored three unanswered goals and were within inches of a fourth before Raleigh finally emerged with a 4-3 victory at Dorton Arena.
The loss to the last-place IceCaps dropped the Admirals (25-13-4) into third place in the ECHL's East Division. Charlotte defeated Birmingham, 4-3, to claim sole possession of second with 56 points. Hampton Roads is third with 54.
Richmond, first with 57, hosts the Admirals today at 1:05 p.m.
The Admirals suffered another crushing personnel loss Saturday morning when forward Rick Kowalsky, the team's third-leading scorer and an ECHL All-Star, was diagnosed with strep throat, an inflammed spleen and a possible case of mononucleosis. He is out indefinitely.
They had already lost their leading scorer (John Porco) and a goaltender (Patrick LaLime) to the IHL and an all-league defenseman (Ron Pascucci) and their No. 2 center (Brendan Curley) to injuries.
Winners of 15 of their previous 17 games before the talent drain, Hampton Roads has since lost two in a row.
Kowalsky's illness left coach John Brophy with three makeshift lines that had only played together briefly and forced him to use many players out of position. The second wing included left wing Colin Gregor at center and defenseman Tony MacAulay at wing.
The personnel losses were painfully apparent for two periods as the IceCaps rolled a 4-0 lead. At times the Admirals had problems finding each other on the ice.
But the third period was all theirs. Tom Menicci began the flurry of Admirals goals by deflecting a shot by MacAulay in at 7:19 to make it 4-1. Just 35 seconds later, center Jim Brown slapped in the second Hampton Roads goal after Rod Taylor stripped the puck from an IceCap in front of the goal.
Ron Majic then pulled the Admirals to within one with a breakaway slap shot at 18:42, just four seconds after Brophy pulled goaltender Corwin Saurdiff.
Brophy pulled Saurdiff again 12 seconds later, and he stayed on the bench as Brown won every faceoff and the Admirals pelted goaltender Brad Mullahy with shots, including several from point-blank range.
Taylor, with an IceCap defenseman draped all over him, missed by inches to the short side at 19:06. Two more shots in the final minute also went wide.
Brophy wasn't pleased, in spite of the comeback.
``Ten minutes of playing hard was all we could do,'' he said. ``That's all we could manage.''
He then muttered, ``I've got nothing else to say. What else is there to say?''
Mistakes also hurt the Admirals, who surrendered two goals in seven Raleigh power plays and were 0 for 3 on their power plays. by CNB