Amerks fall to red-hot goaltender

By Kevin Oklobzija
Democrat and Chronicle

(Thursday, January 31, 2002) -- For 53 minutes, Reinhard Divis didn't look capable of making a series of simple saves, let alone any of the spectacular variety.

But then the first-year goalie from Austria underwent a transformation, apparently believing he was Dominik Hasek, and saved the Worcester IceCats.

After Christian Matte fired a shot off the cross bar, Divis made three big-time stops in a span of 35 seconds to preserve a 4-3 lead and the IceCats went on to defeat the slow-starting Rochester Americans 5-4 Wednesday night.

"I thought he looked shaky all game but then for some reason, it came down to pressure time and he made the saves," Amerks defenseman Brian Campbell said.

The four prime scoring chances came on an Amerks power play in the game's 55th minute.

First Matte hit the cross bar, then Divis stopped Ales Kotalik from the deep slot, stacked his pads to kick away Chris Taylor's point-blank try from the right edge of the crease, then flung up his glove to snare Craig Charron's shot from the right of the net.

With the highlight-reel exhibition, Divis showed why he will be in goal for Austria in the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

"As shooters we thought if we put the puck in places we had to, we'd score," Charron said. "We did that but he made save after save and he just seemed to get more confidence."

When Amerks defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick took a needless tripping penalty at 16:17, the IceCats required just 17 seconds to score the clinching goal in front of the sparse announced crowd of 5,078 at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.

Jamie Pollock, who owns a cannon-like slap shot, boomed in his second goal of the game -- both came with goalie Mika Noronen screened by his own defensemen -- and Worcester led 5-3.

Campbell's power-play goal -- which also came after Noronen was pulled for a sixth attacker -- cut the deficit to one with 59 seconds to play, but the IceCats held on.

Charron scored in the first period, Norm Milley in the second and Milan Bartovic in the third for the Amerks, who lost their second in a row.

Their no-contact, little-interest start cost them as Marc Brown scored on a power play 1:50 into the game, and Jamie Thompson gave Worcester a 2-1 lead at 8:30.

"There were plenty of lapses, quite obviously," coach Randy Cunneyworth said. "Our coverage in our end was a little loose."

The IceCats outscored the Amerks 2-1 again in the second period, with Pollock and Brad Voth beating Noronen (28 saves).

"I don't know what we were doing out there," Noronen said.