Admiral works to help those in a bigger battle than hockey

By Jim Hodges

Correspondent

NORFOLK

The work all week has been difficult. When you score 11 goals in two games over a weekend and don't win either game, the work is supposed to be hard.

"We had a team down," said Norfolk Admirals assistant Mike Flanagan, who is in charge of the defensemen. " We had a two-goal lead on them with 10 minutes to play."

He's speaking of Portland, which trailed the Admirals 4-2 halfway through the third period but won 7-6 in overtime Saturday. He's also speaking of Portland on Friday. The Pirates trailed the Admirals 4-2 and 5-3 in the third period only to win in a shootout.

It's a habit the Admirals will be trying to break tonight in Charlotte and Saturday at Scope against the Checkers.

But that's the hockey agenda. Sunday's duty is more important.

That's when some of the Admirals, organized by defenseman Ty Wishart, will travel to the backyard of 2-year-old Megan Schulte in Newport News to put together a playground.

Schulte has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer that attacks white blood cells.

The playground is courtesy of the "Play It Forward" program of the Roc Solid Foundation, a Chesapeake group that assesses the needs of patients at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk, then designs playgrounds that fit those needs.

"These kids can't go to public playgrounds because the equipment doesn't fit what they can do," said Eric Newman, head of the foundation and a former childhood cancer patient at CHKD. "When that happens, it robs a kid from being a kid."

It's the sort of thing that appeals to Wishart, a 22-year-old, 6-foot-4 defenseman and a self-described "big kid." In his third year with the Admirals, Wishart has adopted CHKD after visiting there a year ago.

"One of the nurses and some of the kids told me about the syringe painting," Wishart said.

Hospitalized children who take medicine by syringes have learned to use them to paint pictures.

"I went back as quick as I could," Wishart said. And he kept going back, looking for some other way to help.

That came three weeks ago while Jason Armstrong of the Norfolk Police Department's SWAT team was having dinner with Newman. The SWAT team had built a playground, and Armstrong brought Wishart along to learn about the Roc Solid Foundation.

"Ty listened to Eric talk and said 'How do I help?' " Armstrong said.

The next day, Wishart approached Millie Lomax, who runs the Admirals' community service endeavors, with a pitch for the club to get involved. The Admirals will host the Schulte family at Saturday's game. Wishart and other Admirals will build her playground Sunday morning.

What the family will see on Saturday - and, for that matter, what Charlotte will see on Friday - is anybody's guess. The Admirals still lead the AHL in scoring at 4.56 goals per game in going 5-2-1-1.

But "we went from fourth place in the league in goals-against to 24th after giving up 12 goals last weekend," Flanagan said. " We can't keep getting in 7-6 shootouts."

Flanagan says the Admirals are not shirking defense to play their up-tempo, pressure offense. But the difference in offensive and defensive "commitment" showed in both games, and the contrast was vivid.

Last Friday, Wishart fired from the blue line and scored his fourth goal of the season to give the Admirals a 5-3 lead. On Saturday, he sent an unwise cross-ice pass in his own end that was knocked away and led to Portland's first goal only 3:27 into the game.

The lapses weren't Wishart's alone.

"It's everybody," Flanagan said. "It's not just defensemen. It's the entire team. When we're giving up six goals and blowing two-goal leads, it's everybody. "

And so a week has been spent shoring up the defense while trying to keep the pressure on offensively. For Wishart, it's also been spent working with new partners. After starting the season being paired with Scott Jackson, Wishart was moved to a combination with Mathieu Roy, an experienced two-way performer.

Roy moved to the injury-plagued Lightning on Monday, and Jackson remains hampered by a knee injury suffered in Worcester two weeks ago. So someone else - the coaches won't say who yet - will be paired with Wishart in Charlotte.

Wishart's become a greater part of the offense, and a defensive leader who will take on an increased role with Roy gone.

And then on Sunday morning, he will lead a group of teammates to a Newport News backyard. The reward is different from that offered by a scoreboard and offers perspective to the athletes.

"What those kids go through, it's crazy," Wishart said. "They're a hell of a lot tougher than we are."