THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 8, 1997 TAG: 9702080662
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 86 lines
When did the Hampton Roads Admirals' 4-3 shootout victory over Raleigh on Friday night cross the border between ordinary and exceptional, forgettable and unbelievable?
Maybe it happened with 9:13 to play in regulation and Hampton Roads trailing 3-2. That's when Admirals defenseman Neil Martin broke his stick shooting a slap shot, then raced past his bench, grabbed one out of a teammate's hand and got back down ice in time to bust Phil Berger across the forearm and deny Berger a breakaway shot on goalie Marc Seliger.
Maybe it happened with just 1:50 to play and Hampton Roads still down a goal. Victor Gervais stood just inside the Raleigh blue line, puck on his stick, the only thing on his mind getting the puck near goalie Bill Horn in hopes that someone could make a play. Gervais whirled, wound up and put the puck through a herd of players and between Horn's pads for the goal that sent the game to a shootout.
And maybe it happened just about every time the puck came anywhere near Seliger. The Admirals goalie, in just his second start since mid-December, made every kind of save imaginable in a performance that Admirals coach John Brophy said was ``sensational, the best goaltending I've seen in a long, long time.''
Seliger finished with 36 saves. He stoned shootout attempts by Brad Dexter (glove save), Jeff Reid (left pad save), Darren Colbourne (glove save) and Kory Karlender (pad save).
Joankin Wassberger, the IceCaps' third skater on the shootout, beat him low to the glove side. But Rod Taylor (upstairs) and Gervais (glove side) scored for the Admirals.
``He kept us in the game all night,'' Gervais said. ``He's starting to show his true colors. We knew he had talent. It's now starting to come out.''
Gervais' shootout goal, which found the top right corner of the net, gave him his second hat trick of the season and a night to remember.
``It's been a long time since I felt like this,'' Gervais said. ``I knew when we got the tying goal that we would win this. I knew the fans would really get into it. We just kept coming at them.''
Indeed, Gervais' goal set off an explosion of emotion from a crowd that had little to cheer about in the early going. Raleigh forechecked the Admirals off their feet in the opening period, putting 21 shots on Seliger and scoring twice.
The Admirals, down the four players called up to teams in the AHL and IHL, also were missing All-Star defenseman Chris Phelps. A deep thigh bruise kept him from playing, leaving Brophy no choice but to give near-regular shifts to Kelly Sorenson and Mike Larkin. The former has been semi-retired from hockey for a year. Larkin was playing his first game since a knee injury sidelined him on Dec. 1.
Down 2-0, the Admirals finally got back into the game in the waning seconds of the first period. Dominic Maltais took control of the puck behind the Raleigh net and found Martin cutting between the circles. Martin drove it low and under Horn to trim the deficit to 2-1 just six seconds before the end of the period.
But Berger, the most-hated Admirals opponent from his days with Greensboro, scored a power-play goal at 16:02 of the second period, and it appeared that the Ice Caps would get revenge for Hampton Roads' 4-2 victory in their building six days ago.
``But some other guys stood up and played hockey,'' Martin said. ``There are guys on this team who have talent but just don't get to show it every night. It took us a while to get going tonight and it was as if you could see them saying, `They're missing four guys and look a little down in the dumps.' That wasn't the case.''
No, in fact, the main topic of conversation in the jubilant locker room was where to hold the postgame party - and replay the most unusual victory of the season. ILLUSTRATION: MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot
The Admirals' Victor Gervais keeps his eye on the puck as he tumbles
to the ice, courtesy of a Raleigh stick. He got up to score three
goals, including the game-winner.
The Admirals' Dominic Maltais slides into the corner, taken to the
ice by Raleigh's Maco Balkovec during the second period of Friday
night's game at Scope .
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