Chiefs Dethrone Royals

Published on January 12, 2008 under ECHL (ECHL)
Johnstown Chiefs News Release


Reading, PA - The Johnstown Chiefs finished off a perfect road weekend with a 5-3 win on Saturday night against the Reading Royals.

With both teams playing the previous night, the first period began a bit slowly. The Chiefs found their footing first, though, as the brand-new line of Mike Sgroi, Jean Desrochers, and Tyler Hirsch cashed in. Sgroi made an outlet pass to Hirsch on the left wing who in turn deftly slid it on his backhand to Desrochers. The center-man then beat Terry Denike with a fake to the backhand for the 1-0 lead.

The second period saw the action between the teams pick up substantially as they combined for six goals in the second frame.

Peter Ferraro would knot the game at one when he beat Ryan Nie with a slap shot from the right wing. Andrew Martens had the answer for the Chiefs, though, when he broke a string of 10 unsuccessful power plays by beating Denike with a low slap shot. Ryan Garlock extended the lead to 3-1 at 7:50 of the second when he jammed in a loose puck around the crease.

Reading's Charlie Kronschnable made it 3-2 when he tipped in a point shot for a power play goal. Jean Desrochers re-established the Chiefs two-goal advantage when he tucked in a rebound of a Mike Sgroi shot. Desroches' goal looked like it would be the last of the period as it came with 12 seconds left, but P.J. Atherton fired one by Nie from the slot with less than one second in the period to make it 4-3.

In the third period, the Chiefs got a huge penalty kill late after Mike Sgroi took a two minute minor for instigating a fight, a five minute major for fighting, and a ten-minute misconduct. At the end of the kill, with Patrick Levesque serving the fighting major, Levesque scooped up a loose puck at the Reading blue line and put in into the empty net to ice the game for Johnstown.

Ryan Nie picked up his second win on the weekend, making 24 saves, and the Johnstown power play worked well going 2-for-8.

The Chiefs' next home game is on Saturday January, 18 against the Dayton Bombers. That night the Chiefs will present a guaranteed win night, where if the Chiefs lose, each fan will get a free voucher to a future Chiefs' game. If you miss that one, you can catch the Chiefs on January 26 also against the Dayton Bombers at the paper air plane toss night sponsored by Toyota. If you can throw a paper airplane through a Toyota vehicle's sunroof you can take it home! Great seats are still available at the UPMC Health Plan Ice Rink at the Cambria County War Memorial, call 536-5156 or go to www.johnstownchiefs.com to get yours today!!

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ECHL Stories from January 12, 2008


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