There was a lot to like about the Richmond Renegades last night after they fell into an early two-goal hole against the Florida Everblades.
Rod Taylor continued to show no effects of the broken hand that put him on the shelf for two weeks, scoring two goals, as the Renegades disposed of the team that had the best regular-season record in the ECHL last year, accumulating a record 108 points.
The final was 5-3. Forrest Gore had the game-winner on a nifty move, cutting through the slot and, just when it seemed he had put himself at an impossible angle, flicked a shot over Florida goaltender Bujar Amidovski to the far (upper) corner.
Also scoring for the Renegades (13-7-1, 27 points), rebounding from a 3-0 loss to Northeast Division-leading Trenton 24 hours earlier, were Dan Vandermeer and Joe Blaznek in a penalty-filled affair. Vandermeer started the comeback after the Everblades (10-9-2, 22 points) turned on the red light on the game's first possession then added a power-play goal five minutes later.
For all of the above, the most encouraging sign for his teammates, coach Mark Kaufman and a Coliseum crowd estimated at 3,200 was the play of goaltender Maxime Gingras. For the first time this season, this looked like the Max of 1998-99 when he was league goalie and rookie of the year while leading the Renegades to the Kelly Cup finals.
In the second period, in particular, when the Everblades had an 18-3 bulge in shots on goal at one point, the little (5-6, 150 pounds) man behind the mask stood tall. There were some exchanges when Gingras made three saves in rapid-fire succession.
Several times, he left Florida players shaking their heads or looking upwards as if to say, "What can I do to beat the guy?" When nothing else worked, Devin Hartnell (6-0, 195) ran over Gingras, knocking him into the goal. Mike Siklenka immediately went after Hartnell, and they unloaded some heavyweight haymakers.
"Maybe we caught lightning in the bottle here," Kaufman said. "This is the way he has performed in the past. Hopefully, it's a start."
It's no secret Gingras hasn't been even a reasonable facsimile of the Gingras of two years ago. In 11 previous games, he had a 4.32 goals-against average and a 0.854 save percentage. To say everyone was concerned about Gingras would be an understatement.
Truth be known, he was concerned, too. "Of course," Gingras said. "Now, I have to start playing good on a regular basis."
Maybe it was only coincidence that Gingras showed marked improvement a day after his goalie coach and agent Guy DuFort arrived in town.
"I needed a tuneup, and like he told me, 'If you have a BMW, you're not going to a GM garage to fix it.' He's the one who built me, and he knows how to make me work," Gingras said. " Best goalie coach I know."
He wouldn't share what advice DuFort gave him but whatever he said, it worked to the tune of 34 saves, at least half of the difficult variety.
"It was the best I played all year," Gingras said. "Making some saves and hearing the people behind me - I had the chills I was feeling so good."
(c) 2000 Richmond Times Dispatch