THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 10, 1995 TAG: 9502100674
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
For six long years, Admirals fans have trudged to the ice and tried in vain to win a brand new car in a contest officially known as The Honda Shootout.
Thursday night, David Palmer missed by a quarter of an inch in a contest fans are now calling The Impossible Shootout.
Contestants attempt to win by shooting a puck from center ice at a board with one tiny hole - a hole only a quarter inch wider than a puck - placed in front of a goal. Put the puck into the hole and past the goal line, and the car is yours.
Palmer, a Hampton resident, slapped what appeared to be a dead solid perfect shot into the hole, and a crowd of 5,393 erupted. The Admirals, in the locker room between periods, came pouring out of their locker room to congratulate the winner.
Alas for Palmer, an off-ice official assigned to judge the contest noticed the puck wedged in the hole. Half the puck was across the goal line, and half wasn't.
Palmer got into the car and was driven off the ice, thinking he had won. Only after he got out of the car did he learn the truth. Amy Dyches, the Admirals public relations director, was the poor soul ordered to give him the bad news.
Palmer, an Admirals season-ticket holder since the team began playing in 1989, took it all graciously.
``I couldn't see it, but I thought I'd won because of the way the crowd reacted,'' he said.
``I was kind of shocked when the puck went in. Then I was shocked when I found out I hadn't won. But if that's the rule, that's the rule.''
Palmer didn't walk away empty-handed. After learning Palmer hadn't won, Admirals president Blake Cullen waded into the crowd to find him, then asked him to come to his office. He then wrote Palmer a sizable check.
Had Palmer won the car, it wouldn't have cost Cullen a dime. The contest is sponsored by Honda of Hampton Roads. by CNB