DATE: Monday, March 24, 1997                TAG: 9703240154

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   57 lines

ADMIRALS TROUNCE RICHMOND TO SET TEAM VICTORY MARK

RICHMOND - The Hampton Roads Admirals turned their third game in 43 hours into a reason to celebrate their accomplishments since mid-October.

The Admirals rebounded from a lopsided loss in Raleigh on Saturday night by whipping the Richmond Renegades 4-2 before 7,587 at the Richmond Coliseum. It was the Admirals' 43rd victory, their most ever.

``Given the kind of history we have here, that's a great record to break,'' said center Randy Pearce, who had the game-winning goal. ``Everyone played hard to win tonight. We came in with the attitude that if we won this, it'd be 2 of 3 on the road, and that's not bad. We kept everything positive.''

The only downside was that they again failed to gain any ground on first-place South Carolina. The Stingrays won a 6-5 shootout over Roanoke and still lead Hampton Roads by four points.

Defenseman Chris Phelps led Hampton Roads with a goal and two assists as the Admirals outscored the Renegades 2-1 in both the first and second periods, then played suffocating defense in the third. But a major turning point had nothing to do with goals or assists. Rather, it was a clash of Aarons - Richmond's Cain vs. the Admirals' Downey.

Cain opened the game by throwing his weight around. At 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, he picked on and pummeled 5-7, 190-pound Alain Savage, drawing a double minor for roughing. Then he took a run at 5-8 Andy Weidenbach.

That was enough. Downey let Cain know it was time to spar with someone a little more his size.

``I told him, `If you're going to run around out there and do that idiot stuff, you've got to pay the price; after that, we'll play hockey,'' Downey said.

After asking if Downey wanted to wait until the third period to scrap, Cain then dropped his gloves and landed a solid shot. But the 6-foot, 205-pound Downey hit the mark with five or six right hands and Cain had his head down as he wandered to the penalty box. Cain wasn't nearly as aggressive afterward. Neither were his teammates.

Phelps made the Renegades pay for Cain's rough-housing of Savage. Dominic Maltais won a faceoff in Richmond's end and Rick Kowalsky tipped the puck over the Phelps, who blasted a shot past Tripp Tracy for a 1-0 lead just 2:18 into the game.

The Admirals added a power-play goal by defenseman Alex Alexeev at 8:18.

Richmond countered with a goal by Scott Burfoot later in the first period, and it looked like it could be anyone's game.

The Admirals took care of that in the second frame. Shortly after Downey's TKO of Cain, Pearce whistled a shot past Tracy, one second after a penalty against Richmond's Brian Goudie expired. Five minutes later, after Tracy stopped one 3-on-1 Admirals break, there came another. This time, Joel Poirier scored to make it 4-1.

``In the third period, we didn't want to give up anything, no rebounds and certainly nothing from the slot,'' coach John Brophy said. ``It was a great period for us.''

Center Victor Gervais, who suffered a sprained right knee ligament Saturday, did not play. He will be evaluated today by Dr. Pat O'Connell, then a decision made on when Gervais will play again.

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