Icecats

Opponent: Worcester IceCatsSite: Baltimore ArenaTime: 7Radio: WITH (1230 AM), WAMD (970 AM)Outlook: The Bandits beat the IceCats on the road Saturday for their second win in three meetings with Worcester. At the midseason point, the Bandits are 17-20-2. The visitors are third in the Northern Division with a 13-15-8 mark. Baltimore is 7-3 over its past 10 games.@

The nicest thing Worcester IceCats coach Greg Gilbert had to say about his team after yesterday's 3-3 overtime tie with the Bandits at Baltimore Arena was: "We were a disgrace, the way we played."Good thing it wasn't a loss.It wasn't so much that Worcester had a chance to capture the American Hockey League's New England Division title over Springfield with a win, but the manner in which the team blew a 3-1 lead and the way it has been playing lately."Stupid, selfish," were a couple of the words Gilbert used to describe his club's 0-3-1 slide.

WORCESTER, Mass. -- For the second time in less than a week, the Bandits got third-period heroics and stunned the Worcester IceCats in their own building. Last night, they did it by winning 4-3.They trailed by a goal heading into the final frame, but newcomer Eric Manlow tied the game at 25 seconds, followed 1: 26 later by Jamie Spencer's go-ahead score.Manlow, playing in just his third game with the Bandits, netted his third of the year after picking up a stray puck, then darting down the right wing.

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Leave it to a guy with no goals this season to get the one that broke the Bandits' six-game winless streak.Leave it to a Massachusetts boy to break the hearts of 11,591 of his fellow statesmen.Leave it to Andy Silverman, who shocked a near-capacity Centrum crowd when he poked in the game-winner with 16.3 seconds left last night to give the Bandits a 3-2 win over the Worcester IceCats.That gave Baltimore its first victory of 1997, after going 0-4-2 in six previous tries.

At least the Baltimore Bandits didn't wear themselves out celebrating the franchise's first win, which came Wednesday night on home ice. There wasn't time.No sooner was a lively practice out of the way yesterday than it was time to grab a window seat for a glorious bus ride through the fall foliage to Rochester, N.Y.The trip was accomplished much faster than originally thought. Ah, the sweet smell of success.It could be short-lived, however, because the Bandits take on the Americans tonight.

BaseballAngels: Named Joe Coleman pitching coach, Eddie Rodriguez third base coach and Mike Couchee bullpen coach. Relieved Rick Burleson, Chuck Hernandez and Bobby Knoop, coaches, of duties.Giants: Optioned OF Jacob Cruz to Triple-A Phoenix. Recalled OF Dax Jones from Phoenix.Mariners: Optioned LHP Tim Davis to Triple-A Tacoma. Sent RHP Blas Minor outright to Tacoma. Optioned RHP Rusty Meacham to Tacoma. Released RHP Jose Guzman.Mets: Put 1B-OF Butch Huskey on the 15-day disabled list. Recalled 1B Roberto Petagine from Triple-A Norfolk.

The fight for third place in the Southern Division started between the Bandits and Carolina Monarchs, oh, last summer sometime when the two franchises were introduced into polite society (and the AHL) as expansion teams. Both undoubtedly thought they caught a break being placed in the same division -- hey, we can always beat out an expansion team.The Monarchs (5-5-1) got off to a far better start than the Bandits (1-9-1) and held the advantage until the first week of January. Baltimore held onto third place for more than 10 weeks, never by more than three points, until caught and passed by Carolina five days ago."

PHILADELPHIA -- Igor Nikulin, who had turned in his second hat trick in a month earlier, made a brilliant foray through most of the Phantom team and put a shot on goal that rookie Matt Cullen rebounded into the net, giving the Bandits a 6-5 overtime win over Philadelphia before 17,380 at the CoreStates Spectrum last night.The game started with five goals in the first 10 minutes, but turned into a wrestling match until the Bandits' big push to the winning goal. It was Baltimore's first overtime victory of the season, in their 78th game.