THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603230478
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
The Hampton Roads Admirals took their cue from goalie Darryl Paquette, starting slowly, then steamrolling the East Division champion Richmond Renegades 5-3 at the Richmond Coliseum on Friday night.
The Admirals fell behind 3-0 less than 10 minutes into the game, with two of the goals coming on the power play. But Paquette, in his first game since being reassigned from Portland of the AHL on Wednesday, stopped every other Renegades shot - 39 in all - enabling his teammates to gather momentum.
They did just that in a three-goal second period that featured power-play goals by Dany Bousquette and Rod Taylor 1:14 apart. Two minutes later, newcomer Ryan Black took a nifty feed from David St. Pierre to give Hampton Roads the lead.
With Paquette slapping aside every kind of shot imaginable in the third period, Sean Selmser gave the Admirals breathing room by burying Serge Aubin's pinpoint pass with 1:43 left in the game.
``Serge put the puck right on my stick; I couldn't help but put the puck in,'' Selmser said. ``We knew they were going to come out in the first 10 minutes and take their best shot. We had some penalties and they capitalized.
``Paquette was nervous, I'm sure. The spotlight was on him. But he played so much stronger as the game wore on.''
The victory, Hampton Roads' second straight over Richmond, was beneficial. Charlotte beat Roanoke 6-2 on Friday, meaning Hampton Roads and Roanoke are tied for fourth place with 77 points.
Because Roanoke has the tiebreaker advantage, the Express must lose tonight at Raleigh and the Admirals must beat Richmond again, this time at Scope, to finish fourth. Should that happen, the Admirals will open the playoffs Wednesday at Charlotte. Any other scenario will result in a Hampton Roads-Richmond series, starting Wednesday in Richmond.
``They're just another stumbling block on our road,'' Admirals coach John Brophy said. ``Tell you what, their coach (Roy Sommer) should be in the NHL, because that team doesn't have a single hockey player on it. He deserves Coach of the Year, getting that bunch into first place.''
A game that featured 35 penalties ended on a particularly ugly note. With one second to play, Richmond's Brian Goudie fired the puck at linesman John Shiery, drawing a game misconduct. A similar incident occurred earlier this season involving Admirals forward Rod Taylor. He drew an eight-game suspension from the ECHL.
Richmond had a 3-0 advantage against Paquette practically before Hampton Roads had a shot. Jay Murphy fired a shot that slipped between Paquette and the right post for a 1-0 lead.
Richmond's Andrew Shier scored the next two goals, one power play, one even strength.
Admirals defenseman Claude Fillion finally made starting goalie Trevor Robins pay for wandering out of the net. With the Admirals down a man, Fillion outraced Steve Carpenter for the puck. Robins came way out to challenge and Fillion deked him out of position, then tucked the puck into the net to cut the deficit to 3-1 at the end of the first period.
Then came the Admirals' barrage.
``It's sweet to beat them any time,'' Brophy said. ``Give Paquette credit; he stopped everything. We took a lot of penalties tonight - and some that weren't penalties that were called penalties. I think we play anybody in this league five-on-five and we're better than they are.'' ILLUSTRATION: GAMEWATCH
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by CNB