THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602180188
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MASTOVICH, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: JOHNSTOWN, PA. LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
The Hampton Roads Admirals have been skating shorthanded for weeks because of injuries.
As the bumps and bruises - and broken bones - accumulated, the team's scoring production dropped.
When the Johnstown Chiefs scored two early goals Saturday night at War Memorial Arena, the Admirals figured to be in trouble. The Chiefs used that strong first period as a springboard to hand Hampton Roads its 12th loss in 13 games, 3-1.
``We didn't come out ready to play,'' said Admirals defenseman Bob Woods, who played several seasons in Johnstown. ``We spotted them two goals in the first period.
``We've had trouble scoring. We can't spot the other team two goals. They (Chiefs) came out flying, and we were flat.''
Each team dressed only 16 players because of injuries and two Johnstown suspensions.
Donnie Parsons picked the puck off the boards in the right corner, skated around two Admirals and backhanded a shot past Mark Bernard 3:26 into the game, with the teams skating 4-on-4.
Johnstown's Brandon Christian knocked in a rebound of a Rick Emmett shot for his first goal of the season at 5:06. Trailing 2-0, the Admirals called a timeout.
On the ensuing faceoff, Christian and Ron Majic dropped the gloves. Christian locked with Majic near the Admirals bench and landed three lefts and a solid right before the players were separated.
The Chiefs Jason Courtemanche was penalized for tapping his stick against the ice to cheer on Christian. When Courtemanche complained, he received a 10-minute misconduct. Further complaints and a tossed glove led to a game misconduct for Courtemanche and left Johnstown with only 13 skaters.
The physical trend continued as the Admirals' Claude Fillion and Rick Boyd fought at 8:43. At 13:35, Christian and Admirals Victor Gervais and Majic were involved in another incident that occurred after a player on the Hampton Roads bench hit Christian on the head as he skated past.
The Admirals received a bench minor for the incident.
Hampton Roads got back into the game with a shorthanded goal at 11:58 of the second.
Forward Jeff Kostuch broke free in the Chiefs end and took a pass from Sean Selmser to get a point-blank shot on Peter Skudra. The goalie made the initial save, but Rich Bronilla put the rebound over Skudra, who was sprawled across the ice with Kostuch in front of him.
The Admirals went 0-for-8 on the power play, including a pivotal 5-on-3 advantage with 5:13 left in the game.
``We killed that, and I felt like the game was over,'' said Chiefs goaltender Peter Skudra, who had 28 saves. ``I said to myself, ``We need to kill this 30 seconds and we win this game.' ''
``I thought we played a great second period, and we played well in the third,'' Woods added. ``We had our chances. We had the 5-on-3. We couldn't get the puck into the net. by CNB