THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602030468
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
It's only fitting that on the wettest eve of the winter, the Hampton Roads Admirals ended the longest drought in franchise history.
The Admirals, winless in their previous five games, crushed visiting Nashville 7-3 at Scope on Friday night before an announced crowd of 7,251.
They also broke out of their recent offensive doldrums. The Admirals had scored just four goals in their previous three games and just six in their previous five.
But seven different Admirals slipped the puck past Nashville goaltender Craig Brown on Friday. The game-winner was scored by newcomer Joel Poirier. A seventh-round pick of the Washington Capitals in 1993, Poirier joined the team last week in Tallahassee, Fla.
Friday night, his second tally as an Admiral, off an assist from Dominic Maltais, gave Hampton Roads a 4-0 lead and made for the easiest victory by the home team since a 9-4 blasting of Erie on Jan. 16.
Hampton Roads goalie Todd Hunter, starting because of a mild shoulder injury to Mark Bernard, was brilliantly acrobatic in getting his fifth win of the season. Hunter stopped 35 shots from a variety of angles and was rewarded by being named the game's first star.
The Admirals raced to leads of 4-0 and 5-1 behind excellent special-teams work.
With Nashville a man short because of a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty, Maltais started the scoring with a power-play goal. His team-high 31st was set up when he and David St. Pierre executed a textbook give-and-go in front of Brown.
Three minutes later, and with Hampton Roads' Ron Pascucci off the ice for roughing, Admirals teammate Sean Selmser stole the puck in his own end, went the length of the ice and beat Brown to make it 2-0.
Less than five minutes later, Ron Majic scored a power-play goal to increase the lead to 3-0, and the rout was on.
But the prettiest goal of the night was Poirer's, even though it was set up by Maltais' scrappy work behind the Nashville net.
Maltais stole the puck from Nashville's Aigar Cipruss, fought off Cipruss as he carried the puck out to the left faceoff circle, and fired at the Knights' cage. Brown made the save, but Poirier tipped in the rebound for the 4-0 lead.
Late in the third period, Nashville narrowed the deficit to 5-3 and had an excellent chance to nudge closer when Richard Enga was alone in front of Hunter. He fanned on a wide-open shot. Hampton Roads iced the victory when St. Pierre and Rick Kowalsky scored goals just 14 seconds apart. by CNB