NORFOLK — With a third of the ECHL season remaining, the Norfolk Admirals’ already-waning postseason hopes were dealt another blow by the lone team below them in the division standings.
Tyler Weiss scored the decisive goal in the second period to fuel the Greensboro Gargoyles in a 3-2 win Wednesday night at Scope.
“We weren’t detailed in our structure and didn’t drive into nets — it was a really bad hockey game for our team,” Admirals head coach Jeff Carr said. “And disappointing because it was a must-win for us tonight, and we just didn’t play the right way — it’s past demoralizing.”
The Admirals (19-27-2-0) remain in seventh place in the North Division, trailing the fourth-place Reading Royals by 17 points. The top four teams from each division qualify for the Kelly Cup playoffs.
Greensboro (14-29-5-1) will be a familiar foe down the stretch as the two teams square off eight more times over the next 23 games.
After an even start to the game, Chase Yoder poked the puck away from a Greensboro defenseman on the forecheck, drove down onto the crease and then smashed the puck underneath goalie Nikita Quapp to stake the Admirals to a 1-0 edge midway through the first period.
Greensboro, though, pulled ahead with a pair of goals with less than four minutes remaining. Braden Doyle fired in a blast from the point to knot it at 1-1. Then with 40.4 seconds on the clock, Smith stole the puck off Will Magnuson’s stick and then flung it past Admirals netminder Alex Worthington to push the visitors ahead 2-1.
Weiss extended the Greensboro lead to 3-1 with a power-play goal a little more than five minutes into the second stanza.
Early in the third period, the modest Scope crowd of 2,984 stirred to life following a 2-on-1, give-and-go opportunity. Brody Crane intercepted a pass in the Greensboro zone and fed a pass to the right for a streaking Jack O’Leary. He slotted it back to Crane, who buried the puck into the net to bring the Admirals to within 3-2.
Carr pulled his goalie for a man-advantage in the final 1:19, but to no avail with just Grant Hebert testing Quapp with a shot careening off his shoulder.
“We just need to play hockey the way that these guys know how to play — if our guys want to play the right way, we give ourselves great chances to win,” Carr said. “We’re just choosing in multiple games these last three weeks to play some foreign way — not to our identity — and that’ll never work.
“We’re not gonna make the playoffs if we don’t get our act together on playing the game the right way.”
The Admirals play Friday at 7:05 p.m. in Greensboro, kicking off a two-game weekend series. They return to Scope on March 4 to host the Idaho Steelheads.
