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Reading Downs Trenton in Season Opener

October 16, 2010 - ECHL (ECHL)
Trenton Devils News Release


Trenton, NJ - The Royals jumped out to early 2-0 first period lead on the road Saturday at Sun National Bank Center, and despite multiple comeback efforts from the hometown Devils, the Royals held on for a 6-5 victory.

Olivier Labelle netted the first goal of the season less than three minutes into the game. Andrew Sarauer quickly followed, on the power play at 6:46. Eric Castonguay recorded the primary assist on Sarauer's goal in his return to Trenton.Devils' goalie Dave Caruso stopped 14 of the 16 shots in the opening frame and Royals' goaltender Ben Scrivens turned aside all four shots he faced, and the Royals replicated their early success from their preseason meeting with the Devils, similarly to the first period of the preseason game between the clubs on October 9.

The Devils came to life in second period with more speed and offensive force. Although Tony Zancanaro was robbed by Scrivens on a one-timer from eight feet away on Trenton's first power play of the period, the flurry sparked the Devils to keep pressing the envelope. After being stopped on the one-timer, Zancanaro kept the play alive and made a cross-ice pass to defenseman, Dave Leaderer. The third-year-Devil patiently waited for bodies to fill the front of the net before firing a wrist shot through a screened Scrivens to get the Devils on the board at the 4:31 mark of the second period on the power play. The Royals came right back, though, and Ryan Cruthers cashed in on a loose puck in front of Caruso to restore his club's two-goal lead at the 8:35 mark. Twenty seconds later, Caruso mishandled a wrist shot by defenseman Ryan Donald as the puck nicked Caruso's glove and trickled into the net, expanding the Royals' lead to a comfortable 4-1 midway through the second period.

The Devils roared back with three straight goals to close out the second period. The first of the three came from a hustling Tony Zancanaro, leaping over fallen players in the crease and swiping the puck into the goal in one motion. As if inspired by their longest-tenured teammate, the Devils responded to Zancanaro's gritty effort when Matt Lombardi executed a 2-on-1 perfectly. With a shooting angle taken away, Lombardi slid a pass across to J.S. Berube to deposit the puck into the net. With Reading's lead narrowed to 4-3, Trenton nearly tied it at four, but goaltender Ben Scrivens made a brilliant post-to-post split save on a shorthanded 2-on-1 started by Darcy Zajac. The Devils went on a late power play with under a minute left in the period and instead of letting the clock run out and getting back to work in the third period, nifty stickhandling by Devils' forward Jeff Prough led to a small lane for a tip-in by Ryan Hayes with .3 seconds remaining to knot the score at 4-4.

In the third period, both teams made frequent trips to the penalty box. After an early penalty kill by the Devils gave Trenton the chance to seize them momentum, Ryan Cruthers broke free and scored his second goal of the game on an unassisted, shorthanded, breakaway to give the Royals a 5-4 lead less than five minutes into final stanza. The Devils got into more penalty trouble and although they were able to kill a couple of penalties, Reading made them pay when Labelle scored his second goal of the game, boosting the Royals lead to 6-4, on what proved to be the game-winning goal. Cruthers picked up an assist on Labelle's goal giving him his third point of the game. After getting a two-goal lead, the Royals tightened up defensively and smothered Trenton, not giving the home team any room to generate offense. Ben Gordon was called for goaltender interference with five minutes left in the game setting up a crucial power play opportunity for Trenton. Off an offensive zone face-off win, Trevor Kell set up Justin Pender's one-time rocket, hitting the top corner of the net, igniting a frenzy inside Sun National Bank Center. However, that would be as close as the Devils would come as the Royals killed off a late power play highlighted by Ben Scrivens stopping Pender's one-timer on a similar looking play to the goal four minutes earlier. This time Scrivens gobbled the shot up, securing the first win of the season for the Royals in their season opener.

The Devils and Royals waste no time getting back to work as they square off at 4 p.m. at Sun National Bank Center in the finale of the weekend series in Trenton.

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