Roanoke Express weekly

February 9, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL)
Roanoke Express News Release


ROANOKE, VA – The Roanoke Express continued on its season-long 10-game road trip this past week, and struggled to a 0-2-1 record . The Express enters this week with a record of 22-21-5, (49 pts., 6th place in Southern Division).

LAST WEEK'S ACTION

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2004 at SOUTH CAROLINA 3-2 Shootout Loss

The Express began the week by gaining a point in the standings in a 3-2 shootout loss to the South Carolina Stingrays. In a hard-fought game, the Stingrays opened a 2-0 lead by the two minute mark of the second period before the Express began its come back. Bryan Perez notched his third goal of the season at 9:38 of the second period when he and Doug Scatchard converted a 2-on-0 break to cut the South Carolina lead in half. Trailing 2-1 into the third period, Roanoke tried several times to find the equalizer, but was turned away time after time by Stringrays netminder Kirk Daubenspeck. It wasn't until the Express pulled goaltender Jason Wolfe for an extra attacker with one minute remaining that the Express tied the game up. Dan Carlson jumped on a rebound and chipped it past Daubenspeck with 37 seconds remaining in the game to tie it 2-2.

In overtime, the Express found its self on the power play after Duncan Dalmao was tripped going to the net. The power play turned into a 5-on-3 when Blair Stayzer was cross checked in the side of the face by Stingrays captain Trevor Johnson, who received a 5-minute major. The power-play however was reduced back to a one-man advantage when Andrew McPherson's stick was found to be illegal. Despite having a power play though, the Express could not collect the game-winning goal, sending the game into a shootout. In the shootout South Carolina scored on its third attempt against Wolfe, and Daubenspeck stopped all five shooters from the Express to preserve the win.

Wolfe earned a tie for his efforts, stopping 33 of 35 South Carolina shots and three of four shooters in the shootout to bring his record to 10-10-1. In the season series, Roanoke is now 2-0-1 vs. South Carolina with two games remaining between the teams.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2004 at AUGUSTA 4-1 Loss

Roanoke traveled to Augusta for the second time this season and fell 4-1 to the Lynx. Augusta has won both games between the two teams in Augusta this year.

Terry Marchant recorded a hat trick in his Augusta debut and Scott Kelman collected four assists in the win. Marchant's goals came at 1:01 of the second period, which gave the Lynx a 2-0 lead, 7:40 of the second period, and 8:29 of the third period. Duncan Dalmao notched the only Roanoke goal at 2:00 of the third period. Gregg Naumenko did the rest for the Lynx, stopping 32 of 33 Roanoke shots in goal for Augusta, including a third period penalty shot by Dan Carlson. Jason Wolfe made his second straight start in net for the Express but suffered the loss, allowing the four goals on 24 shots to fall to 10-11-1. Roanoke is now 1-2-0 vs. Augusta this year.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2004 at CHARLOTTE 3-0 Loss

Roanoke closed out the weekend suffering its fifth shutout of the season in a 3-0 defeat by the Charlotte Checkers. In the first game of the season between the teams in North Carolina, the Checkers collected a goal in each period. Charlotte picked up goals from Mike Wirll in the first period, Lucas Lawson in the second period and Richard Keyes in the third period. Checkers goaltender Scott Meyer was perfect in goal stopping all 29 Roanoke shots, including 16 in the first period. Jason Wolfe made his third straight start in goal for the Express and fell to

10-12-1 on the season allowing the three goals on 37 shots.

Roanoke is now 2-1-0 vs. Charlotte this season with three games remaining between the Southern Division rivals. The shutout was the fourth Roanoke has suffered in its last 14 games.

UPCOMING GAMES

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2004 at GREENSBORO 7:00 p.m.

Roanoke plays the seventh game of its 10-game road trip on Tuesday night at the Greensboro Coliseum. The Express and the Generals meet for sixth of seven times, and the third and final time in Greensboro. Roanoke is 2-2-1 vs. the Generals this season. Roanoke's two wins in the series came on Nov. 1 (6-4), and Jan. 4 (4-3), both at the Roanoke Civic Center. Greensboro has won games of 8-6 on Nov. 21, 5-1 on Dec. 21, and a 4-3 overtime win on Dec. 27. The Generals begin this week's action with a record of 28-20-1 (57 pts., T-2nd Southern Division), and has won seven of its last 10 games. Roanoke is 19-13-3 all-time vs. Greensboro.

FRIDAY, FEBURAY 13, 2004 at FLORENCE 7:30 p.m.

The Express makes its final visit to the Florence Civic Center to take on the Florence Pride on Friday night. Thus far, the Express is 3-0-1 vs. the Pride. The two Southern Division rivals haven't faced off since December 13, when the teams played three straight games against each other. The season series has been extremely competitive, with only one of the four games played decided in regulation. Roanoke's wins against the Pride have come on Nov. 13, winning 4-3 in a shootout, Dec. 12, winning 6-4, and Dec. 13 winning 3-2 in a shootout. Roanoke's lone blemish against Florence came on Dec. 7 when the Pride collected a 5-4 shootout win. Florence begins this week with a record of 17-23-6 (40 pts., 7th Southern Division), and is 3-6-1 in its last 10 games. The Express is 21-8-1 all-time vs. Florence.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2004 at GWINNETT 7:35 p.m.

Roanoke travels to Duluth, GA for the second and final time this season to take on the Gwinnett Gladiators. Overall the game is the third of five between the two teams. The first meeting of the year saw the Gladiators pick up a 4-2 win on home ice on Nov. 15 and Roanoke returned the favor on Dec. 31 winning 6-4 at the Roanoke Civic Center. Following Saturday night's game, the season series wraps up with a pair of games between the teams at the Roundhouse on Feb. 20 & 21. Coming into this week the Gladiators are 27-16-4 (58 pts., 3rd Central Division), and have won four straight.

SUNDAY, FEBRUAY 15, 2004 at CHARLOTTE 3:05 p.m.

The Express wraps up its season-high 10-game trip vs. the Checkers in the fourth of sixth games between each other on Sunday afternoon. Roanoke is 2-1-0 against their division rival this season. Roanoke has won both games between the teams at the Roanoke Civic Center, by scores of 2-0 and 2-1. The Checkers won the most recent matchup last Saturday night 3-0 at Cricket Arena behind their new head coach Derek Wilkinson. Charlotte begins this week with a 4-1-1 record with Wilkinson behind the bench, and 24-19-6 (54 pts., 5th Southern Division) overall. Roanoke is 41-19-13 all-time vs. Charlotte.

NEWS & NOTES

Special Teams: The Express enters this week ranked 14th on the power play (17.1%) and ranked 15th on the penalty kill (83.7%).

Road Warriors: The Express is currently in the midst of its longest road trip of the season. The 10-game trip began on January 28 and concludes on February 15. During the trek, the Express will face Dayton, Toledo (twice), South Carolina, Augusta, Charlotte (twice), Greensboro, Florence, and Gwinnett. So far on the trip, Roanoke is 1-3-2. In addition, Roanoke has had only one home game since January 10. The good news of this, is that following Roanoke's game in Charlotte on Feb. 15, the Express has only five road games left on the schedule.

Frequent Buser Miles?: While on the subject of the 10-game road trip, the Express will travel 3,226 miles during the trek. Oh, and in case your wondering, overall during the 2003-2004 season, the Express will log just over 18,000 travel miles.

Injury Bug: Lately the Express has been bit by the injury bug causing some big names to be out of the lineup. Over the past couple weeks, Joe Dusbabek, Rick Kowalsky, David Silverstone, Josh Barker, and Blair Stayzer have all missed time because of injury. In all, the Express has had 49 man-games missed this season because of injury, 43 of those man-games missed have come since the beginning of January.

In The Division: Roanoke is 14-7-3 against its Southern Division opponents this season. 31 of their 49 points have come against divisional opponents.

How's He Doing?: Shawn Limpright remains on call-up with the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League. Limpright has skated in 13 games, picking up two goals and four assists, while collecting 31 penalty minutes, and holds a plus-10 rating.



ECHL Stories from February 9, 2004


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