ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Come from Behind to Defeat Devils, 3-2

Published on November 17, 2010 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Trenton, NJ - The Reading Royals of the ECHL (2nd Atlantic Division, 8-5-0-016), affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, defeated the Trenton Devils (3rd Atlantic Division, 4-5-0-19), 3-2, at Sun National Bank Center in Trenton, New Jersey. For the Royals, the victory extended the team's win streak to five games. Reading is 7-1-0-0 in the team's last eight games. This marked the first time this season that the Royals gave up the game's first goal and still registered the win (1-5-0-0). Goaltender Matt Dalton (win, 4-2-0-0, 28/30) won his third straight. Trenton's Dave Caruso (loss, 1-4-0-1, 35/38) made a number of high quality stops but sustained his second loss to the Royals this year. Neither the Royals (0-2) nor the Devils (0-4) capitalized on the power play.

Trenton struck first when Kory Nagy blitzed behind a Royal defender on the left wing side, carried with speed behind the Reading net, and came out at the right pipe, where he jammed the puck under Dalton's extended left pad for his third of the season 5:40 into the game. The Devils took a 2-0 lead 4:07 into the second when Ryan Ginand's cross-ice feed set up Darcy Zajac for a hard one-timer out of the left circle that beat Dalton to the short side for his second of the year.

Reading broke through at the 8:10 mark of the second when Jared Ross fired a hard slap shot from the right point that Matt Caruana deftly deflected up and over Caruso for his team leading eleventh goal of the year. For Caruana, that goal extended his personal point streak to eight games (9g-3a12pts). 1:24 later the Royals tied the game at two, when Andrew Sarauer picked off a Devil break-out pass and fed Chris Blight between the hash-marks for a wide open look. Blight blistered a snap shot low stick side on Caruso for his second of the year. Blight has had at least a point in all six games he's played for Reading this season (2g-8a10pts). The Royals got what proved to be the game winner 5:48 into the third. Ben Gordon had been sent to the penalty box for goaltender interference at the 3:37 mark of the third. When the penalty expired, Gordon stormed out of the box and tracked down a Rob Slaney chip deep on the left side of the ice in the offensive end. Gordon then laid down a brilliant move that broke off the Devil defender sending him to the ice, while Gordon cut towards the middle and fired a perfect cross-ice pass to Ryan Cruthers who snuck up on the right side of the net for the back-door tap in. That was Cruthers' seventh goal of the year and his second consecutive third period tie-breaking game winner. Reading held the Devils, who mustered only five third period shots, at bay through the expiration of regulation time to run the Royals' record this season against Trenton to 2-1-0-0.

The Royals and Devils now head to Sovereign Center in Reading, Pennsylvania, where they'll play the back-end of the home-and-home on Friday night (November 19 @ 7:05 pm). The pre-game warm-up show presented by The Works at Wyomissing will kick off on the Royals Broadcast Network (WRAW 1340 am in Reading, www.1340wraw.com) at 6:35 pm. You can also catch all of the Royals away games season on Royals TV exclusively on BCTV courtesy of Boscov's Travel, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Season tickets for the Royals' 2010-11 season are currently available. To become a part of Royals hockey, call 610-898-PUCK or log onto www.royalshockey.com.

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



ECHL Stories from November 17, 2010


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