DATE: Monday, April 7, 1997                 TAG: 9704070141

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ROANOKE                           LENGTH:   67 lines

ADMIRALS SAVE BEST FOR LAST 2 LATE GOALS TICKET TO 2ND ROUND

They opened the playoffs with the greatest home victory in their history. Now, the Hampton Roads Admirals move on to a new opponent after the most unlikely comeback in their postseason history.

Trailing the Roanoke Express by a goal with less than three minutes to play Sunday, the Admirals came to life to score twice and pull out a stunning 4-3 victory in a mostly empty Roanoke Civic Center.

Dominic Maltais' low slap shot at 17:45 of the third period beat hobbled Roanoke goalie Dave Gagnon to tie the game. With 16 seconds left, defenseman Chris Phelps launched a shot through traffic that ticked off the skate of Roanoke's Ilya Dubkov and slid past Gagnon to give the Admirals their first playoff-series triumph in three seasons.

``Going south, boys, going south,'' Admirals coach John Brophy shouted at each of his players as they skipped off the ice and down the tunnel to their cramped but jubilant dressing room.

That's south as in South Carolina.

Having closed out the best-of-five series against Roanoke three games to one, the Admirals now meet the Stingrays, who won the '97 Brabham Cup as the team with the best regular-season record. The Admirals won the season series 5-4.

Dates for that best-of-five series won't be known until today. The Stingrays will have home-ice advantage, their reward for being East Division champions and the only team to finish with a better regular-season record than the Admirals.

South Carolina swept its opening-round series against Charlotte.

After blowing a 2-0 lead and misplacing its shooting touch for almost all of the second and third periods, the most Hampton Roads had going for it was that Game 5 against Roanoke would be at Scope.

Shot after Admirals shot would miss the net, negating any advantage they had of playing against an injured goalie. Gagnon started despite a badly pulled groin muscle that robbed him of much of his mobility.

``You could tell he was in pain,'' Maltais said. ``We knew if we could just run some traffic in front him and put some shots on net, he'd be slow to stand up.''

It didn't look like they'd ever find out, or that it wouldn't matter if they did. Phelps was called for cross-checking with 4:58 to play, and Roanoke's J.F. Tremblay nearly gave the Express a two-goal lead. But his shot clanked off the goalpost and the Admirals still had life.

Moments later, at the other end, Roanoke's Doug Searle tried to clear the puck out of his zone. But Alain Savage got his stick on it, and the puck squirted to Maltais in the circle to the left of Gagnon.

``I closed my eyes and took my shot,'' said Maltais, whose earlier goal had put the Admirals up 2-0.

``Just a bad turnover and Maltais ripped it,'' Express coach Frank Anzalone said. ``Dave probably had to move quicker than normal to block that shot.''

Instead of playing for the tie and another overtime, Hampton Roads kept applying pressure, forcing Roanoke to ice the puck, setting up a faceoff in the Express end with 20.8 seconds left.

Randy Pearce beat Dubkov for the puck and defenseman Alex Alexeev used his body to shield a Roanoke player while directing the puck to Phelps at the right point.

With bodies everywhere in front of Gagnon, the All-Star defender fired off a shot that glanced off Dubkov's skate and changed direction faster than Gagnon's injured groin would let him move. But the goalie took the blame on the play, arguing that the play wasn't that hard.

``I've made that save all year,'' Gagnon said. ``That time, I didn't. If I'd made the big save, we would have gone to OT with a chance to win. Now, I've got all summer to think about it.''

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