Sports stats



ECHL Reading Royals

Gerard Nets OT Winner, Fulcher 29 Saves to Take Series Finale Over Thunder, 2-1

February 25, 2023 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Glens Falls, NY - The Reading Royals (29-18-3-0), proud affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers and Lehigh Valley Phantoms, defeated the Adirondack Thunder (19-23-7-1) in overtime, 2-1, on Saturday, February 25 at Cool Insuring Arena. Charlie Gerard scored his first overtime goal of his professional career to win the series finale and split the two-game series with Adirondack. Kaden Fulcher earned the win in goal with 29 saves on 30 shots faced for his third win in his last five starts (4-5-0). Jake Theut suffered the loss in net for Adirondack with 49 saves on 51 shots faced.

Reading broke the game's scoreless tie with 5:38 remaining in the second period to take a one-goal lead into the third period, 1-0. Alec Butcher redirected a wrist shot from Will MacKinnon past Theut's glove side for his 12th goal of the season. The sequence began off of an offensive zone face-off draw won by Sam Hu back to MacKinnon who shot the puck on goal from the blue line. Reading has scored first in 13 of their last 16 games.

After being held scoreless through the opening two periods, Adirondack evened the score 1:51 into the third period. Ryan Smith poke checked a puck away from Garrett McFadden up ice for Brandon Schultz who turned the forced turnover into a game tying goal. Schultz lasered a one-timer over Fulcher's left shoulder for his eighth goal of the season and the final goal notched in regulation.

Fulcher and Theut put on a goaltending clinic in their respective nets. Theut saved a season high 47 shots through regulation while Fulcher made two highlight reel diving saves to rob Adirondack's Travis Broughman and Colin Long of goals in the second and third periods.Theut turned aside 14 shots while Fulcher saved nine in the final 18:08 of regulation to force overtime for the second time in the season series.

Gerard scored the overtime winner 2:31 into the extra frame on a back-and-forth connection with Max Newton. Gerard received a pass from Newton at the left face-off circle and beat Theut who was caught out of net and short of coming up with the game saving save.

The Royals registered all three shots in the overtime period and captured their second overtime win over the Thunder this season (2-0). Reading improved to a 7-2 record in the season series against the Thunder and a 45-27-7 record all-time. The Royals are 3-3 in overtime games and improved to a 24-12-3 record against divisional opponents (.654%).

The Royals return home on Friday, March 3 to host the Trois-Rivières Lions at 7:00 p.m. at Santander Arena. The home game features the Career Ready Berks Night promotional game.

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics

• Discuss this story on the ECHL message board...

ECHL Stories from February 25, 2023


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central