THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510080191
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
It was only an exhibition game, but the way the Hampton Roads Admirals were dismantled Saturday by the Richmond Renegades has the Admirals' brass justifiably worried.
Richmond got four goals from Greg Hadden, a rookie from Northern Michigan, to rally from a 3-1 deficit and sink the Admirals 8-3.
The Hampton Roads defeat came on the heels of a 7-3 shellacking by Roanoke on Friday at Scope in which rookies, six of whom were cut Saturday morning, got a majority of ice time.
On Saturday, however, the Admirals essentially fielded the team with which they plan to open the regular season.
In their first time together under game conditions, the Admirals looked the part of a team whose whose players are unfamiliar with one another and with coach John Brophy's rough-and-tumble system.
Richmond, the defending ECHL champion, has most of its players back, and the Renegades' passing and teamwork were nearly flawless in the final two periods. The Admirals, meanwhile, were plagued with errant passes, blown defensive assignments and players tripping one another.
``We haven't played much together, but that's no excuse for what happened tonight,'' defenseman Chris Phelps said. ``It comes down to hard work and playing 60 minutes of hockey. I think the talent is here. It's just a matter of work.''
Brophy, usually livid after a lopsided defeat, was quiet and appeared worried.
``Of course I'm concerned,'' he said. ``Who wouldn't be after a performance like that? . . . Only two players played hockey tonight, and that's our goaltenders. (Forward Aaron) Downey tried to do his job, too. But that's it.''
The Admirals opened the game with a flurry, knocking three shots off Richmond goaltender Sandy Allan in the game's first 30 seconds. Two minutes later, Trevor Halverson took a breakaway pass from Claude Fillion and slapped in a shot from 20 feet.
It was 1-1 58 seconds into the second period when Martin Woods made a long pass from the blue line across the ice to Dominic Maltais, who plopped the puck in the empty net.
Rick Kowalsky made it 3-1 with a shorthanded goal on another breakaway pass, this time from Halverson.
But the rest of the game was all Richmond.
CUTS: Defenseman Bob Rishell, Derek Lowe and Ian Keiller and forwards Chad Wagner, Keith Levinthal and Bryce Davidson were all released by the Admirals. The cuts reduced the roster to 21, one over the limit allowed by the ECHL.
The final cut is expected to come from among the team's four goaltenders. Darryl Paquette, a late cut from Portland of the American Hockey League, helped his chances with a strong performance in goal in 1 1/2 periods.
One or two defensemen might still be in jeopardy. The Ademirals anticipate that Ron Pascucci, an All-ECHL defenseman from last season, or defenseman Yannick Jean could be assigned to Hampton Roads by Portland. by CNB