Admirals go up 4-0, then collapse in 5-4 loss at Scope

By Jim Hodges

NORFOLK

Albany had pulled goalie Jeff Frazee in the game's closing minute to try to finish catching up to the Norfolk Admirals.

With 33.5 seconds to play, Eric Gelinas fired from a mass of players to the left of the Admirals' net, but goalie Dustin Tokarski plucked the puck out of the air.

Undaunted, Gelinas fired again from the other side; this time, the puck sailed past Tokarski to tie the game at 4-4. Joe Whitney put in an overtime power-play goal to cap the comeback and give Albany a 5-4 victory Friday night at Scope.

The Admirals were 13-0 when leading after two periods.

"We got a four-goal lead and just sat back," said Admirals captain Mike Angelidis. "We didn't play the right way, and they got momentum and kept their foot on the gas."

The Admirals were a team in flux, with forward Pierre-Cedric Labrie getting a call two hours before the game to pack for his NHL debut and defenseman Evan Oberg coming back to Norfolk without his skates, sticks and pads, which ended up on another flight. 

And still, it was a game that looked surprisingly easy after goals by Mark Barbario, Carter Ashton, Trevor Smith and Oberg.

It turned incredibly difficult in a third period in which the Admirals mailed in their defense.

"That's where we sat back," Angelidis said.

And that's when Albany hit the gas pedal.

Goals by Nick Palmieri, Brad Mills and Matt Anderson, all scored within a 3:02 span of the third, raised more than a few pulses. Then Gelinas set up the overtime.

The loss broke a 5-0-0-1 run that had the Admirals tied atop the AHL's East Division.

It also made a winner of Albany goalie Jeff Frazee, who started in place of Keith Kincaid, who is 2-0 against the Admirals. Kincaid has given up only one goal over the two games and figures to get another chance tonight in a rematch at Scope.

Frazee was pummeled, though he got scant support from his defense.

Both teams skated slowly to begin, perhaps understandable for an Admirals team that played at Hershey last Saturday, came back to Norfolk for a practice, went back to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., for a Wednesday game and then came back to town.

Albany last played on New Year's Eve and practiced at Scope on Thursday, just after the Admirals trundled into their beds after a long bus ride from Wilkes-Barre.

The Admirals got an early goal from Barbario, who followed a shot by teammate Matt Fornataro that was rejected at 4:38 of the opening period.

A tight-checking period slowed things, but they opened up with eight seconds left when Carter Ashton beat Frazee to complete a tic-tac-toe goal that made it 2-0.

Smith's goal came on a power play when he tipped in a shot by Barbario, and Oberg threaded in a shot from near the blue line to make it 4-0.

And then everything fell apart in the worst Admiral loss all season.

"It's good that we get a chance to play them again (tonight)," Angelidis. "That's a good part about this game."