THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 18, 1995 TAG: 9511181773
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Jeff Kostuch couldn't remember the last time he scored two goals while on the same shift. But when he did it Friday night in front of the Hampton Roads Admirals' largest crowd of the season, his timing couldn't have been better.
With the Admirals nursing a 3-2 lead in the second period, Kostuch scored twice in a 45-second span. His outburst propelled the Admirals to a 7-2 victory over the Birmingham Bulls in front of a Scope crowd of 8,682.
``At the time, we were getting a little stalled,'' said Admirals coach John Brophy, who had watched most of an early 3-0 lead evaporate. ``But the kid came through. We had to have this one and hope the gusto carries over.''
Brophy spoke specifically of tonight's first-place showdown with the Admirals' archrival, the Richmond Renegades, at the Richmond Coliseum. The Renegades (11-3) beat Raleigh 7-4 Friday night to maintain a one-point lead over the Admirals (8-1-5) in the East Coast Hockey League's East Division.
If only the Admirals can start as fast tonight as they did Friday, when they outshot the Bulls 11-2 in the game's first 15 minutes.
The opening goal was textbook as defenseman Chris Phelps shoveled a pass out of the Admirals' end, Serge Aubin got rid of the puck before being checked at center ice, and Rick Kowalsky and Trevor Halverson finished off a 2-on-1 break 35 seconds in.
Four minutes later, Aubin scored off his own rebound.
A little over 10 minutes later, Sergei Voronov took the puck from the Admirals' blue line and skated untouched into Birmingham territory where he snapped a wrist shot past Bulls goalie Chad Erickson.
``We stayed out of the penalty box in the first period and really got into the flow of things,'' Admirals captain Rod Taylor said. ``We wanted to play good from the start tonight. We'd come out slow the last couple of games.''
Birmingham (9-4) bounced back with two goals in the second period, the first when Craig Lutes batted his own rebound in on a power play and the second when Ian Hebert sneaked behind the Admirals' defense, camped near the right post and waited for a pass from Mike Latendresse.
Then it was Kostuch to the rescue. The 21-year-old rookie scored on a breakaway off a feed from Taylor at the 11:47 mark. Less than a minute later he knocked home his own rebound after teammate Bob Woods had fed him on the doorstep from the left boards.
``Taylor showed great vision in getting me the puck on the first one,'' Kostuch said. ``On the second goal, I should have scored on the initial shot.''
With breathing room re-established, the Admirals added two more goals in the third period, the first when Aubin cleaned up a rebound after a strong rush down ice by Sean Selmser, the second when Alexei Krivchenkov snapped home a wrist shot while walking unmarked up the right side.
``We'd lost two our last two games in shootouts and everyone was pretty (upset) about that,'' Halverson said. ``Hopefully this was a preview of (tonight's game in Richmond).'' by CNB