Laforest has own a hat trick

The Journal staff

It was a terrific weekend that Mark Laforest won't soon forget, but ask him how he feels come Monday.

The 32- year-old goaltender capped a perfect weekend with his third strong performance in three nights, stopping 36 shots as the Milwaukee Admirals breezed past the Cincinnati Cyclones, 6-3, Sunday before a crowd of 8,101 at the Bradley Center.

Laforest, who improved his record to 4-0-4 for the season, started all three nights in the three-victory weekend because Jim Hrivnak injured his back in the pre-game skate Friday in Houston.

"I haven't played three in a row in three nights in a long time," said Laforest, who is in his 12th season as a professional. "They were all worried that I wasn't going to be able to do it.

"I'm feeling OK right now, but ask me later when the adrenaline wears off."

Admirals coach Phil Wittliff knew that Laforest was a good goaltender all along.

"He really had a good training camp and then we went with Hrivnak early on and he didn't get much action," Wittliff said. "{Associate coach} Don McAdam had him last year {at Prince Edward Island of the American Hockey League} and two years ago we tried to get him, but he was signed with Ottawa.

"He's not only a good goalie but he's a great guy to have in the dressing room."

Mike Tomlak scored two goals in the opening period as the Admirals, who improved to 26-11-6, jumped out to a 4-1 lead and never again trailed.

After falling behind, 1-0, on a power-play goal by Mike Stevens at 3 minutes 58 seconds, the Admirals answered with four goals in the final 10:22 of the first period.

Tomlak started it at 9:38 when he pushed in a shot by Brian Dobbin, and Sylvain Couturier made it 2-1 with a power-play goal at 10:52 after taking a sharp pass from Pat MacLeod above the left circle.

MacLeod scored the Admirals' second power-play goal at 16:11 in a four-on-three situation and Tomlak closed out the first period scoring when he got past defenseman Marc Laniel for his 11th goal of the season to make it 4-1.

"We got off to a good start and caught a few breaks," said Tomlak, who scored his first goal since Dec. 9.

The Cyclones (28-13-5) pulled starting goalie Danny Lorenz in the second period for Frederic Chabot, and Chabot kept Milwaukee off the scoreboard in the period, but Laforest remained strong, allowing only a goal to Doug Barrault at 14:53.

Cincinnati made things interesting when Paul Lawless sent a blur from the right side past Laforest at 4:59 of the final period to make the score 4-3.

That set up Mike McNeill's play of the game a little more than 5 minutes later.

After taking a check and losing his helmet in the process, McNeill skated down the left side and got in the attacking zone just in time to rebound Dave Mackey's shot. The play happened so quickly, he could do nothing but swing baseball style, and he bounced the puck into the net.

"He must be a good baseball player," Cincinnati coach Don Jackson said of McNeill, who actually did play one year of baseball while attending Notre Dame.

Laforest stopped 11 shots the rest of the way after giving up the early goal, and even turned away a pair of shots in the closing 2 minutes when the Cyclones pulled Chabot and had a six-on- four advantage. Gino Cavallini's empty-net goal with 21 seconds left sealed it.

"Let's face it, he stopped us," Jackson said of Laforest. "We had a lot of chances to jump back in the game and he stopped us cold."

Copyright 1995
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