It has speed, spills, whistling shots and plenty of physical play.

But there was one feature of roller hockey that the ice refugees could have done without yesterday: a rainout.

You don't see that happening in the Stanley Cupplayoffs.

But roller hockey is an outdoor sport and there was nothing Aloha State Games rolloer hockey coordinator Tim Temple could do about it when a downpour stopped the first adult men's semifinal yesterday at the Hickam Air Force Base Youth Center five minutes into play.

"We rarely see rain out here," said a disappointed Temple, huddled under a canopy being drummed loudly by raindrops. He had squeezed in 11 of the 14 games slated in four divisions yesterday and was hoping to stay on schedule.

"But this is as wet as it gets and you just can't play in this because the (roller) wheels lose their friction."

The game between the Flying Ds and the Hammerheads was to resume this morning.

But the crowds that came to the recreation center between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. did get to see plenty of fast up-and-down action on the 185-foot-long by 85-foot-wide rink.

Roller hockey was one of 37 sports in action yesterday in the seventh Aloha State Games, staged throughout Oahu. The games will continue today through next weekend.

In the last full game game that preceded the rain, the Kauai Hurricanes edged the Mililani Devils, 6-4. The Hurricanes clung to a precarious 5-4 lead while Mililani applied strong pressure late in the game. But Kauai came up with an insurance goal in the last minute.

Three divisions - Bantam (12-14), Midget (15-17) and Adult (18-over) - will decide their championships this afternoon. But the Pee Wee Division (9-11), which had only two teams, wrapped up yesterday.

The Kauai Bullfrogs clobbered the Mililani Avalanche, 10-2, to claim the best-of-three series (2-0) and the title.

But the biggest blowout of the day was a 17-1 Adult Division victory by the Hammerheads over the Flying Cockroaches.

Yancy Hutcheson, a 27-year-old Honolulu aquarium designer and maintenance specialist, said he played ice hockey in a district league in Rochester, Minn., before coming to Hawaii. He said he never had a reason to consider playing roller hockey until he arrived in the islands but now he's addicted.

"I love this," he said.

Although the rules of roller hockey officially prohibit the kind of body checking that is allowed in the ice game, Hutcheson said it's not possible, nor is it advisable, to completely domesticize roller hockey.

"It comes down to the fact that hockey is a rough sport, a pretty violent, and they're pretty strict on that here," he said. "But I think they have to let some of that stuff ride. Let boys be boys."

Rod Sutterfield, a Detroit native who referees roller hockey as well as A and B league ice hockey games at the Ice Palace, said

"You're not supposed to use your body to gain an advantage over another player but incidental physical contact occurs all the time," said Sutterfield.

"It ranges from scrums for the puck to all-out collisions. Some result in penalties. I call anybody who's attempting to gain an advantage through the use of an elbow or hip. But as long as he's aggressively playing the puck, if a collision occurs, it doesn't necessarily mean there needs to be a penalty."

Sutterfield said stick-checking, or using the stick to obtain possession of the puck, is permitted. But using the stick to strike an opponent is a quick route to banishment.

"But occasionally, a guy will get cross-checked and it will result ina fight," said Sutterfield. "In any tournament, you'll have two ore three fights. But anybody who uses a stick as a weapon will not be allowed to play in the Hawaii Roller Hockey League."

Kevin King, a Hammerhead who scored five goals in his team's 17-1 rout, is a 24-year-old U.S. Army corporal from Vermont who once played ice hockey in the North Country Junior League in Adirondack. N.Y.

He said the adjustment to roller hockey was not an easy one.

"It was a lot harder than ice hockey," he said. "Going from a little blade where you're pretty much in control of yourself to wheels that will go anywhere on you is not easy. Without the hitting, you need to rely more on finesse and you have to work on your stick-handling more. In ice hockey, you can't be as finessed because you don't know when you're going to get clobbered."

Flores captured the 100 in 10.84 seconds and the 200 in 21.90 seconds.

In the 10-kilometer race yesterday, Richard Matsumoto of Kauai won the men's division in 34 minutes and 38 seconds while Jeannie Wokasch took the women's gold medal in 39:15.

In shooting, Peter Akamu took the air pistol Open Division gold medal with a record 549 points.

Jennifer Choi won the Open Division gold medal in the air rifle competition with 535 points.