THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611020630
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 53 lines
Two hard-to-believe streaks continued for the Hampton Roads Admirals on Friday night, neither of them good.
Admirals goalie Darryl Paquette continued a career-long skein of never having won a shootout. Although he made several brilliant saves during regulation, he was beaten twice by Richmond Renegades skaters in the shootout, and his team went down with him, 4-3.
That made the Admirals, who once enjoyed one of the biggest home-ice advantages in the ECHL, 0-2-1 at Scope this season as their overall record dipped to 2-4-2.
``I've got to win one of these sooner or later,'' said Paquette, who is 0 for 8 in shootouts in his career. ``I don't know what it is, but when I save one, we don't score. When we score, I let one in.
``I'm still confident. Once I get that first win, there won't be too many losses in these things after that.''
Randy Pearce's second goal of the game - a rising slap shot that beat Richmond goalie Grant Sjervin high 11:18 into the third period - brought the Admirals back into a 3-3 tie and set up the shootout.
Paquette started strongly, stoning Trevor Senn on the first shot, after which the Admirals' Ryan Mulhern scored to give Hampton Roads a 1-0 lead.
But Jay McNeil and Brian Secord, the latter just added to the Renegades' roster, scored on Richmond's next two possessions, while Sjervin came up big against Denis Lamoureaux and Pearce. Neither side scored on its final
two possessions, with Admirals Andy Wiedenbach and Alain Savage missing the net with difficult, tough-angle shots.
Much to the delight of the crowd of 7,451, the Admirals raced to a 2-0 lead after a lengthy first period marred by 50 minutes of penalties.
Pearce began the scoring with a power-play slap shot from the right circle.
Hampton Roads' second goal was scored by Alex Alexeev, who cleverly beat Sjervin low and to the left with a soft shot that the screened Richmond goalie never saw.
And the Admirals took even more momentum to the dressing room when they killed off a 5-on-3 penalty that consumed the final two minutes of the first period. Penalty-killing was an Admirals strength Friday. They held the Renegades - who were 1 for 17 entering the game - scoreless on 13 power plays.
But that 2-0 lead vanished in the first 7:45 of the second period.
Defenseman Matt Garzone, in just his third game with the Renegades, shot high and over Paquette's shoulder to trim the deficit to 2-1. Five minutes later, forward Tommy Holmes beat Paquette to tie the game.
Then came the killer. The team that couldn't score with the man advantage figured a way to score shorthanded. With Garzone off the ice for interference, Mike Taylor got the puck at center ice when two Admirals collided, then skated in alone and beat Paquette, low and true.
``We missed assignments out there, let guys go walking around like they were going through a turnstile,'' Rod Taylor said. by CNB