Last night at Scope: Philadelphia 5, Admirals 4 (OT)

WARNING - The following recap is a biting, no-holds-barred self-assessment of Wednesday's effort by the local heroes. If you're interested only in good news about the Admirals' play, check back after Friday's game against Portland. Those interested in the truth, read on.

Another late start

A Jared Ross goal with 16 seconds left in overtime was the difference for the Phantoms. But in reality, the Admirals (1-4-1-2) lost the game in the first two periods when a shockingly tepid effort resigned them to a 3-1 deficit after 40 minutes.

“Unbelievable. Embarrassing,’’ Admirals coach Darren Rumble said during a blistering review in which he also dropped the phrases “No heart’’ and “Stealing money.’’ “I can’t believe we can call ourselves professionals and play like that.

“Who wants to play?’’

A disgusted Rumble responded by benching captain Zenon Konopka, alternate captain Brandon Bochenski and winger Chris Lawrence for the final period and overtime.

“Some of these guys are playing like they don’t want to be here,’’ Rumble said.

The result was arguably the Admirals’ most spirited hockey of the season. Wyatt Smith and Paul Szczechura scored to even the game at three, and Juraj Simek connected with just 1:34 left to send the game into OT.

“We just dropped down to the nine (forwards) who felt like playing, and we made a go of it,’’ Rumble said.

Struggling leader

A season-long funk continued for Konopka, whose mistake on a penalty kill late in the second period set up the Phantoms’ third goal.

“I’ve never had a slump like this before,’’ said the Norfolk captain, who has three points and a minus-7 rating through eight games. “Everything’s going the wrong way. And the more I put into it, the more frustrating it gets.’’

To Konopka’s credit, he spent the third period trying to pump up his mates from his seat on the bench.

Offensive hero

Szczechura scored two goals and now has a team-leading five. On this night, however, individual success meant little.

’’We act like we can turn it on and turn it off whenever we want, and that’s not a good thing,’’ he said. '’If we play a full 60 minutes, I think we’re a pretty good team. But we can’t come out the way we did tonight. Especially in that first period.’’

Nor did Szczechura seek to hide behind the fact that this was Norfolk’s fourth game in six days.

’’No excuses,’’ Szczechura said. “We’ve got to be tougher than this.’’

The slump continues

The loss was Norfolk’s fifth straight (three in regulation) and it kept the team winless in three appearances at Scope.

– Paul White