DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997                 TAG: 9704070472

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ROANOKE                           LENGTH:   55 lines

ADMIRALS ROLL PAST ROANOKE THEY CAN CLINCH SERIES WITH A VICTORY OVER THE EXPRESS TONGIGHT

The Hampton Roads Admirals removed all the suspense from Game 3 of their playoff series with Roanoke early Saturday night, scoring on their first two shots on their way to routing the Express 4-1.

The victory not only gave the Admirals a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five East Division playoff, it also represented their sixth consecutive win without a loss this season at the Roanoke Civic Center. Hampton Roads can clinch the series with a victory tonight.

Alain Savage and Rod Taylor got the Admirals off to a flying start by scoring goals on Hampton Roads' first two shots. Goalie Darryl Paquette was solid in net, stopping 30 of Roanoke's 31 shots.

The Admirals got a huge break before the game even started. Roanoke goalie Dave Gagnon, who made 103 saves in the first two games of the series, was unable to play after pulling a groin muscle Friday.

Taking his place was 19-year-old Matt Carmichael.

A month ago, Carmichael was playing for North Bay of the Ontario Hockey League. Until Saturday, he had never started an ECHL game. However, he relieved Gagnon late Friday and made several saves that prevented Hampton Roads from tying the game.

He wasn't nearly that good Saturday night.

Just 54 seconds into the game, Savage scored on a faceoff to give the Admirals a 1-0 lead. The ref- eree dropped the puck in the Express zone, Savage took a step back and popped a shot that beat Carmichael in the top right L corner.

A mere 72 seconds later, Taylor flew down the left side and fired a slap shot past Carmichael to make it 2-0.

Roanoke and Carmichael settled down during the middle portion of the period. But with J.F. Tremblay off the ice after an interference penalty, Chris Phelps beat a screened Carmichael with a slap shot from the left point to give the Admirals a 3-0 edge.

Paquette, meanwhile, was sharper than in his last outing, especially late in the period. First, he stopped Ilya Dubkov's attempt at a wraparound goal. Then, with 12 seconds to play, All-Star Jeff Jablonski got loose in the Admirals' end, only to have his wrap-around try stymied by Paquette.

The teams traded goals to 3-1.

Hampton Roads immediately weathered another storm. Twenty-one seconds after Jablonski's goal, Joel Theriault was sent from the ice for roughing. But the Admirals' penalty-killers were all over the ice in stifling the Express. In fact, Randy Pearce and Victor Gervais executed a near-perfect 2-on-1 of their own that nearly netted a goal.

Five minutes later, Joel Poirier and Gervais combined to strip a Roanoke player of the puck deep in Express end. Poirier recovered the puck, skated in on Carmichael and beat the youngster high for a 4-1 lead.

Note: Krivchenkov underwent root-canal surgery in Norfolk following Friday's game. He did not travel with the team here, arriving instead at 5 a.m., transported by trainer Stu Bender.

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