THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 22, 1995 TAG: 9503220557
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
The Hampton Roads Admirals will meet the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks on Friday and Saturday at Scope in the first round of the ECHL playoffs.
The best-of-five series shifts Tuesday, and Wednesday if necessary, to the 13,500-seat Tallahassee Leon County Civic Center.
The Admirals, seeded eighth in the playoffs, have never met ninth-seeded Tallahassee, a first-year team that moved from Huntsville, Ala., last summer.
The Tiger Sharks, 4-3 shootout losers to South Carolina on Tuesday in their regular-season finale, finished 36-25-7 and second in the South Division.
They are led by Darren Schwartz, whose 81 points (47 goals, 34 assists) rank seventh in the ECHL.
Goaltender Mark Richards is fourth in the ECHL with a 2.91 goals-against average and has a league-high 31 victories.
``We haven't seen Tallahassee . . . but we know a lot of their players,'' said Admirals coach John Brophy. ``What's important is how we play. We're concerned about ourselves, not our opponent.''
Hampton Roads was knocked from third place to fourth in the East Division by Charlotte, which drubbed Raleigh, 7-3, its final regular-season game Tuesday. Elsewhere, Richmond clinched the East Division title with a 7-6 shootout victory at Greensboro.
The Hampton Roads-Tallahassee winner will meet the winner of the series between top-seeded Wheeling vs. No. 16 Birmingham. Other matchups in the Admirals' bracket: No. 4 Richmond vs. No. 13 Columbus and No. 5 Roanoke vs. No. 12 Knoxville.
The other bracket features No. 2 Dayton vs. No. 15 Huntington, No. 7 Charlotte vs. No. 10 Greensboro, No. 3 South Carolina vs. No. 14 Johnstown and No. 6 Toledo vs. No. 11 Nashville.
Only Raleigh and Erie failed to make the playoffs.
Admirals playoff tickets are available at $8 apiece. For information, call 552-2222 or 640-1212.
PASCUCCI GONE? All-ECHL defenseman Ron Pascucci was supposed to be at practice Tuesday. Instead, he remains in Kansas City, where the Blades of the IHL apparently plan to hold onto him a while.
Asked if Pascucci will return by Friday, Brophy said: ``This I don't know. I haven't talked to anyone in Kansas City. The agreement was that he would be back, but if he's playing well up there I'm not going to take this opportunity away from him.''
A spokesman in Kansas City said it is undecided whether Pascucci will return. by CNB