Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 31

Friday, Nfay 20. 1994 The Arizona Republic CS 1-WEEK ONLY! Runners to absolve deal with Kings 7. MIL Playoffs Rangers nip Devils in 2nd OT ifTf0l3 iv i Reg. It wasn't happening under the Kings. The Roadrunners had the worst overall record in the IHL in 1991-92 and 1992-93.

Last season, despite signing six free agents of their own, the Roadrunners slipped again. They lost 28 of their first 47 games before Abraham and Keller convinced the Kings it was time for a new coach. Tim Bothwell was replaced by Rick Dudley, and the team went 21-10-3, just missing the playoffs. Phoenix was third in the Western Conference's Pacific Division, but its 85 points would have been enough to qualify for the playoffs in each of the previous seven years. "If we had made a coaching change two or three weeks earlier," Keller said, "we certainly would have made the playoffs and we'd still be in the playoffs today because we were the hottest team in the league." The Roadrunners received more bad news when Dudley quit to become head coach and general manager of the Detroit Vipers, one of four teams to join the IHL next season.

Kings general manager Nick Beverley, who was fired Wednesday, said he hopes Phoenix fans don't blame the Kings for the upcoming affiliation purge. "The indication I've been getting is that it hasn't been our goal to win there, and nothing can be further from the truth," Beverley said last week. "We have always attempted to do what we can to make things successful in Phoenix, but unfortunately, it hasn't worked out that way. "But we have never taken the approach that we don't care if Phoenix is successful or that we're only out to use them for our own needs. That's the way it seems to come across, and I take great, personal exception to that." The Roadrunners' front office and coaching staff didn't always agree with some of the decisions made by the Kings.

They didn't like it that Los Angeles kept sending young prospects to Phoenix, or that several players kept getting recalled, only to sit in the stands in the Forum. "It's been just like a marriage," Keller said. "For the most part, things have been favorable and amicable. However, and we have expressed this to them, our patience has thinned in not having the results on the ice. That is what's crucial to the Phoenix Roadrunners, above all." RUNNERS, from page C3 stocking the International Hockey League team's entire roster, coaching staff and training personnel.

"We're really going to start going places now," said Ralph Backstrom, then the Roadrunners head coach. "You watch, next year we'll be right back in the playoffs and this time, we're going to come back with the Turner Cup." The Roadrunners didn't need much to put them over the hump. Only a few months earlier, in onry their second year of existence, they made a run through the IHL playoffs. They came within one goal of playing in the Turner Cup Finals, losing to the eventual champion Peoria Rivermen in the seventh game of the semifinals. And they did it with only a handful of players assigned to them by the Kings.

The rest of the roster was made up of veteran free agents handpicked by General Manager Adam Keller. But the Roadrunners wanted to tie the knot. So, they signed the papers, made it official, and set out to live happily ever after with' the Kings. Tom Webster, then the Kings' coach, called it "a match made in heaven." Now, only three years later, the Roadrunners are ready to file for divorce. Vachon is gone.

Backstrom is gone. Webster is gone. And so are a hundred or so players "who kept spinning through the revolving door between Phoenix and Los Angeles. Keller and Roadrunners owner Lyle Abraham, citing the team's failure to make the IHL playoffs the past three seasons, said they have decided not to renew their full affiliation with the Kings. They want a partial agreement, whereby the NHL team would provide no more than six or seven players.

They may also decide to become an independent franchise. They hope to meet with Kings officials soon, but because of the recent shakeup involving the sale of the Kings, Abraham and Keller said they must "wait for the smoke to clear." "We prefer to have more independence and less affiliation, and we believe that will be the best solution for us," Abraham said. "The Kings are receptive to our wishes. "We're not trying to be deceitful, we're trying to be human. We want to put a winner on the ice, and we think this is the way to make it happen." i I AND UP The Associated Press EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.

Stephane Matteau scored on a rebound 6:13 into the second overtime to give the New York Rangers a 3-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night and a two-games-to-one lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference final. The victory was the Rangers' second straight and it came only after Richter saved the game by stopping Tommy Albelin on a 2-on-l breakaway 3:40 into the second Overtime. Game 4 will be held Saturday night at the Meadowlands Arena, The winning shot resulted off a "wild scramble near the New Jersey net. Alexei Kovalev tried to chip a 'shot past Martin Brodeur, but it went over the net and hit Devils defense-man Scott Stevens and bounced back in front. Matteau then got the rebound and scored his fourth goal of "the playoffs.

"I saw it (the puck) at the last second," Matteau said. "I was lucky enough it went on my stick and it went in." Both teams had chances to either 'score a go-ahead goal in the third period or win in the first overtime, i The best chance in the first overtime belonged to New Jersey's Bernie Nicholls. He got the rebound of a bad-angle shot from the right corner by Tom Chorske right in front and fired it back in Richter's pads with 7:52 left. Glenn Anderson of the Rangers had had an equally good opportunity few minutes earlier, just after stepping out of the penalty box. Breaking in from the right side, he took a cross-ice pass from Esa Tikkanen and missed an open net.

Stephane Richer of New Jersey had the best chance to break the 2-2 tie late in the third period but Richter made a glove save on a shot from just outside the crease. The Rangers dominated the first two periods much like they did in Game 2. But instead of finding themselves ahead by a goal, New York found itself tied at 2 despite holding a 32-15 edge in shots. Valeri Zelcpukin got the equalizer for New Jersey with a power-play goal with 4:10 left in the second period. Reebok, Nike, Avia, New Balance, Asics, Etonic, Tretorn, Saucony, Converse, Keds, LA.

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