THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 18, 1995 TAG: 9502180732
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
What has been a gloomy February for the Hampton Roads Admirals deteriorated into a nightmare Friday.
The Admirals surrendered two goals in the final 1:28 to absorb a stunning, 5-4, loss to the Dayton Bombers before a sellout crowd of 8,990.
And that was only the beginning of their problems.
Shortly after the game, coach John Brophy stormed up into the stands to scream at Admirals off-ice officials for a call they helped make that took Admirals captain Trevor Halverson out of the game's final 16 minutes.
He then walked into the locker room and suspended veteran defenseman Rob MacInnis for receiving a 10-minute misconduct at 11:35 of the third period. MacInnis did not depart with the Admirals Friday on an eight-game, 13-day road trip that begins tonight in Roanoke, and apparently is off the team for good.
Veteran Dennis McEwen, on injured reserve for the last two weeks, will play in his place.
Asked if MacInnis, a 29-year-old veteran and the brother of St. Louis Blues star Al MacInnis, will return, Brophy said: ``He's off the team.''
He then added: ``It's been an ongoing thing with him. He's a veteran, the kind of guy we expected to lead this team. He's been taking stupid penalties. You can't talk yourself into a 10-minute misconduct when you're up by a goal and we desperately need you in the game.''
MacInnis sat in a corner of the locker room by himself for about 10 minutes after receiving the news and had little to say.
``I got punched 10 times from their bench and their coach is mouthing off at me and the referee comes from the other side of the ice and throws me out for saying something back,'' MacInnis said.
Asked about his suspension, MacInnis said: ``I was getting booed out of here by the fans anyway.''
Halverson was given a game misconduct for coming off the bench and taking part in a fight with Dayton's Steve Lingren at 4:18 of the third period. Halverson said he was on the ice when the puck was in play. Off-ice officials differed, saying he came onto the ice after the whistle.
Coming onto the ice and fighting after a whistle carries an automatic game misconduct, and the accompanying ejection. Referee Chris Cozzan made the call after consulting by telephone with the off-ice officials.
After walking into the stands following the game, Brophy slammed his fist on the table and began yelling, to the delight of several dozen fans standing around the table.
``Halverson never came off the bleeping bench,'' Brophy said after returning to the locker room. ``Our own officials did that to us.
``All I can say is that I'd like to go to Dayton and get that call. It would never happen.''
The loss was the eighth in 11 outings for the Admirals since the ECHL All-Star break, and came in heartbreaking fashion.
After falling behind, 2-0, and being outshot, 20-5, in the first period - perhaps their worst period of the season - the Admirals came storming back.
Mike Nemirovsky scored two goals in the second period, then Rod Taylor and Kelly Sorensen scored early in the third period to give the Admirals a 4-3 lead.
But Sorensen and MacInnis both went to the locker rroom at 11:35 with misconducts. With Halverson gone, Rick Kowalsky called up a day earlier by Cornwall of the AHL and Ron Majic nursing a pulled hamstring, Brophy had just nine skaters available.
The shorthanded Admirals dug in to play defense, but ran out of gas. Pascal Trepanier knotted the score at 18:32 on a goal set up by a steal in front of the net by Jamie Steer.
Craig Charron then knocked in a slap shot from the top of the right circle at 19:20 to give Dayton the victory.
``Everyone on this team worked their arses off,'' Brophy said. ``This was a heartbreaking son of a bleep to lose. This one hurts.'' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN/Staff
Admirals goalie Todd Hunter reaches for a Dayton Bombers shot that
was just wide of the goal Friday night at Scope.
by CNB