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ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Blasted By Bombers, 5-3

February 28, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Reading, PA - The Reading Royals (18-35-4= 40; 7th North Division) of the ECHL were unable to recover from a slow, mistake-filled start in a 5-3 loss to the Dayton Bombers at the Sovereign Center in Reading, Pennsylvania. This loss marks the first time in the Royals' eight year history that the team has lost 17 home games in regulation (8-17-0). Michael Ouzas (loss, 16-17-1; 25/29, l eng) suffered his third straight loss; while Paul Drew (12-8-3; 23/26) beat the Royals for the third time in three times this season. Reading's power play was blanked for the second consecutive game (0-9). The Bombers struck nine seconds into their first power play (1-4) for their third goal of the night.

The Bombers broke through 1:14 into the game, when Kelly Perrault ripped a blast from the left point that hit Ouzas high on the chest. The rebound bounded into the low slot, where Les Reaney settled and slipped a pass to Matt Aufrey at the right side of the net, and Aufrey had a virtual tap in for his eighth of the season. The Royals bounced back to tie the game 1:38 later when Steve Ward chipped and chased deep into the offensive end. Ward retrieved on the end wall and threw a pass back up the gut that ended up in the high slot where Dinos Stamoulis drilled a slapper that slipped through Drew for his third goal of the year.

Dayton re-claimed the lead 1:02 later when Andrew Fornier carried into the offensive zone on the right wing side, spun off pressure from the Royals' defender, and threw a pass back to the trailing Jim Henkemeyer, who was able to get a quick snap shot off despite being well-covered by a Royals' back-checker. Henkemeyer's shot went along the ice across the body of Ouzas, beating him low to the glove side for Henkemeyer's third of the year. The Bombers took the lead for good at the 6:18 mark of the first on their first power play chance of the night. After the Bombers won an offensive zone face-off, Henkemeyer fired a shot from the right point that Ouzas stopped; but the rebound fell out in front of the Royals' goal where Aufrey put it in for his second of the night and ninth of the year.

The Royals cut the lead to one (3-2) at the 12:29 mark of the first, when Chris Stevens made a beautiful pass from below the goal line on the left side of the ice to Ryan Toomey, who was above the goal line at a sharp angle on the left side. Toomey, playing his first game as a Royal, found a sliver of net on the far side for second of the year. The Bombers re-gained the two goal advantage, however, at the 16:39 mark of the first when another broken play in front of the Royals' goal resulted in a rebound punch-through by Fornie for his third goal of the season.

After a scoreless second period, during which the Royals were unable to capitalize on 1:07 worth of five-on-three power play time, Reading made a game of it with 4:11 remaining in regulation. Joe Cooper out-battled a Bomber on the end wall for a loose puck and slipped a pass to the right side of the net, where Dan Rudisuela stepped up and blasted the puck threw Drew to make it a one goal game (4-3, Dayton). Reading got what they wanted down the stretch: a six on four skating advantage (with a power play with the goaltender pulled)-but they were unable to capitalize in the waning moments, as Dayton's Ryan Smyth fired a 150-footer into the empty net to ice the game with twenty-two seconds left and run the Royals record against the Bombers this season at the Sovereign Center to 0-3-0.

The Royals and Bombers go at it again tomorrow evening (Sunday, March 1 @ 5:05 pm) at the Sovereign Center for Ladies Night, when the first 1500 ladies will receive a bar of organic soap courtesy of Imagine That Boutique of West Reading. Sunday's game will be broadcast live on the Royals Radio Network Presented by Transmissions by Arbogast (True Oldies WRAW 1340 am in Reading; and The Ticket WLAN 1390 am in Lancaster), as well as on the internet via webcast hosted by Sportsjuice.com, which can be accessed through the Royals website. To become a part of Royals hockey, call 610-898-PUCK or log onto www.royalshockey.com.

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