THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 22, 1995 TAG: 9502220584
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID WALSH, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: HUNTINGTON, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
George Zajankala is finding life with the Hampton Roads Admirals most enjoyable.
Zajankala, traded by Knoxville to the Admirals on Valentine's Day for Jim Brown, scored a goal and assisted on two others Tuesday to lift Hampton Roads to a 5-2 victory over the Huntington Blizzard.
``It's taken a while to get used to the system,'' said Zajankala, who has a goal and five assists in four games. ``But coach (John Brophy) is happy. He's playing me everywhere.''
The victory ended a four-game losing streak for Hampton Roads (28-19-5), which is 1-1 on an eight-game, 13-day road trip that continues tonight at Dayton.
The Admirals were coming off an 8-2 loss at Roanoke, their worst of the season, and came into Huntington shorthanded - defensemen Brian Goudie and Rob MacInnis (both suspended) and Jason MacIntyre (injured) did not play.
The Admirals took a 2-0 lead in the first period, saw the Blizzard pull even midway through the second, then scored three unanswered goals to cement the victory.
Zajankala, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound forward, set up Mike Nemirovsky for the go-ahead goal at 10:51 in the second period, then made it 4-2 when he fired the puck past Blizzard goalie Todd Chin with 51 seconds left in the second period.
``I just dove and knocked it in,'' Zajankala said.
In the third period, the Admirals scored an insurance goal when Zajankala and Trevor Halverson broke out on a two-on-none, with Zajankala firing a pass across the ice to Halverson, who knocked it in the open goal with 2:38 left.
Admirals assistant coach Al MacIsaac said he saw some encouraging signs Tuesday.
``We hoped to use this game as a lesson plan for our players,'' he said. ``We stress defense and hard work and had gotten away from that the last four games.
``They (the Blizzard) are struggling, and we took advantage of that. It looked good, but we still didn't play as well as we can.''
Ron Pascucci, the All-ECHL defenseman, played for the first time since spraining his ankle a month ago and scored the game's first goal. Defenseman Tom Menicci also had a goal.
Goaltender Todd Hunter stopped 30 shots to pick up his third victory in seven starts.
The Admirals, the ECHL's runaway power-play leader, scored on their only power play and allowed just one Huntington goal in five power plays.
``I was happy with the effort,'' MacIsaac said. ``We felt like we gave up two soft goals. But we jumped on them and got that third goal. We took the play to them.''
And ended their losing streak. by CNB