THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 18, 1996 TAG: 9603180136
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KEITH NAMM, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Trailing by one at the start of the third period, the Hampton Roads Admirals surrendered five unanswered goals Sunday and fell to the South Carolina Stingrays, 7-1.
The defeat means it's likely the Admirals will face East Division leader Richmond in the first round of the Riley Cup playoffs.
Richmond will play the East's fifth-place team in the best-of-five first round, and the Admirals are fifth with 75 points, a point behind fourth-place Roanoke.
The fourth-place team will meet second-place Charlotte.
Roanoke lost at home to Raleigh 5-1 Sunday, but has three games remaining. The Admirals have only two games left - at Richmond on Friday and at home against Richmond Saturday.
The Admirals (31-24-13) were within 2-1 to start the third period, but Mike Ross scored at 1:48, and an elbowing major called on Ron Majic at 2:19 led to two Stingray power-play goals that broke the game open.
Mark Rupnow scored twice in the period for third-place South Carolina (37-22-7, 81 points).
Hampton Roads outshot the Stingrays 37-32, including a a 27-18 edge through two periods, but lost to South Carolina for the second time in three days. The Stingrays rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Admirals 6-4 Friday at Scope.
Stingrays goaltender Sean Gauthier made 36 saves Sunday in recording his 28th win.
``I thought we played well in the first two periods. We were working our system and had a lot of chances. Gauthier was making the saves he had to make,'' Admirals captain Bob Woods said. ``The turning point was the five-minute penalty. The flood gates opened.''
The loss closed out the Admirals chances of catching the Stingrays for third place in the ECHL East.
Paul Rushforth put the Stingrays up 1-0 at 15:44 of the first, jamming home the rebound of newcomer Trevor Gallant's breakaway shot. The Stingrays had just killed a penalty when Gallant picked up a loose puck at center ice and raced in alone on Corwin Saurdiff. Brett Marietti had the other assist.
Hampton Roads cut it to 2-1 on Serge Aubin's unassisted power-play goal at 16:56 of the second off a giveaway. Gauthier was trying to freeze the loose puck when teammate Carl LeBlanc's pass-out was picked off by Aubin. by CNB