THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701190230
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY REID SPENCER, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE LENGTH: 53 lines
From the outset Saturday night, Hampton Roads punished Charlotte with a withering barrage of solid checks.
The physical play translated into a 3-1 first-period lead for the Admirals and, ultimately, a convincing 7-4 victory over the Checkers, who disappointed a sellout crowd of 9,570 at Independence Arena.
``We came out fast and got some results early, but then they came on stronger in the second period,'' Admirals coach John Brophy said. ``But we did a great job killing off their power play, and every time they got a goal, we'd come back and get a couple.''
Alain Savage opened the scoring at 5:58 of the first period with a 30-foot backhander that took Checkers goalie Ken Shepard by surprise.
At 10:17, Randy Pearce finished a two-on-one with Victor Gervais to give the Admirals a 2-0 lead.
After Charlotte's Mickey Elick answered at 14:01 with his 17th goal of the season, Ryan Mulhern split the Checkers' defense and scored from close range at 15:53.
Despite three power-play opportunities, Charlotte managed just seven shots on goal during the opening period as Hampton's physical play kept the defending Riley Cup champions off their game.
Elick's power-play goal resulted from a giveaway in the Admirals' end after Hampton Roads had outshot the Checkers during the first three minutes of a double minor to Alexei Krivchenkov.
Charlotte made it 3-2 at 7:09 of the second, again the result of a defensive mistake by Hampton Roads. Chris Phelps hit the side of his own net while trying to send the puck behind the goal, and seconds later Darcy Mitani's shot from a severe angle to Darryl Paquette's right trickled between the goalie's pads.
The 10th minute of the second produced two fights, the first of which found the Admirals' smallest player - the 5-foot-7 Savage - squaring off against Mitani.
Heavier blows fell when Scott Kirton battled Krivchenko along the boards 49 seconds later.
At 10:31 Phelps atoned for his earlier mistake by setting up Rod Taylor in front of the net to give Hampton Roads a 4-2 advantage.
After Aaron Downey and Checkers forward Eric Boulton dropped gloves for the third fight of the period, Joel Poirier scored at 11:18 to make it 5-2. J.F.
Aube narrowed the lead to 5-3 at 2:44 of the third period, but the Admirals then killed a two-minute minor and scored a pair of goals, by Savage and Chad Ackerman 55 seconds apart, to seal the victory. ILLUSTRATION: SUMMARY
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[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]