THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, October 7, 1996               TAG: 9610070149
SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C8   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: YORK                              LENGTH:   58 lines

ADMIRALS SHOW SPEED, SPUNK AS THEIR TRAINING CAMP OPENS

In the first hour of the first day of practice for the Hampton Roads Admirals, fisticuffs broke out at the Ice Palace Skating Rink.

Center Alain Savage and defenseman Roy Gray collided, exchanged blows, then dropped their gloves. Little damage was done, and afterward, Savage appeared embarrassed it had happened.

``He hit me and I hit him back,'' the Quebec native said. ``I was being, how do you say in English, aggressive.''

Aggressiveness was the order of the day for a team that appears, as the coaches had promised, more talented than the squad that began training camp last year.

With 30 players competing for 18 roster spots, and with a majority of cuts expected a week from today, newcomers wasted little time trying to make an impression.

There are no exhibition games, so coach John Brophy has scheduled an hourlong scrimmage each afternoon. Sunday's scrimmage was aggressive, if sloppy, which Brophy said was to be expected on the first day.

``It's not really fair to these guys to not have an exhibition,'' said Brophy, whose training-camp site was set too late this summer to schedule a practice game. ``But we can't do anything about it.''

Sunday's practice sessions left one indelible impression: The Admirals have recruited speed, especially in Savage and center Andy Weidenbach. Both are short (Savage is 5-foot-7 and Weidenbach is 5-9) and played last season in Europe, where speed is a prized commodity. Both glide down the ice almost effortlessly.

``They can move, can't they?'' said Brophy, who recruited them both as free agents from the Cleveland Lumberjacks' camp. ``We've got more team speed than we've had in a while.''

Added returning forward Dominic Maltais, ``There is more talent this year than we had last year. It's early, but it looks like we will have a better team.''

SHORT TRYOUT: Bryan Quigley, a 22-year-old Portsmouth resident, lived out the fantasy of any pro hockey wannabe when he tried out with the Admirals on Sunday.

Quigley, who played college hockey at Plymouth State in New Hampshire, got permission to try out at 8:30 a.m., a half-hour before practice began. Quigley, who works in the Starship Ice pro shop and plays amateur hockey for the Hampton Roads Ice Pirates, managed to hold his own during a grueling, two-hour session.

``He hung in there pretty well,'' assistant coach and general manager Al MacIsaac said.

But Quigley declined an offer to return to the afternoon practice.

``I always wondered whether I could go out there and skate with these guys,'' he said. ``Now I know what it takes to play at this level.'' ILLUSTRATION: HUY NGUYEN

The Virginian-Pilot

The sign says it all as forward Ryan Mulhurn is checked into the

glass at the Admirals' training camp. by CNB