ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Drive Past Road Warriors, 4-2

Published on January 29, 2011 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Reading, PA - The Reading Royals of the ECHL (1st Atlantic Division, 25-11-2-3=55), affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, defeated by the Greenville Road Warriors (1st South Division, 27-15-1-1=56), 4-2, at Sovereign Center in Reading, Pennsylvania. The Royals struck early and never trailed, extending the team's home unbeaten streak to a season long eight games (5-0-1-2). The win, which ran the Royals' record to 6-3-1-2 against teams from the South Division, marked Reading's first victory ever against the Road Warriors.

Goaltender Michael Hutchinson (win, 5-2-1-3, 29/31) saved his best for the third period, when he made several big stops to keep the hard-charging Road Warriors at bay. Greenville's Dov Grumet-Morris (loss, 15-8-0-1, 29/33) dropped to 2-3-2 in seven career games over three seasons against the Royals. For the seventh time in the last eight games, the Royals registered a power play goal (1-4). For the eighth game in the last eleven played, Reading's penalty killers kept the opposition's power play off the board (0-3).

Reading struck forty seconds in, when Andrew Sarauer carried into the offensive zone, found a seam, and deftly slid the puck five-hole on Grumet-Morris for his ninth of the year. The Royals extended the lead to 2-0 9:47 into the first while playing with the man advantage. Jared Ross fired from the right point. The puck hit a body in the right circle and landed to the stick of Chris Blight, who chopped a back-hand across the body of Grumet-Morris that hit the interior of the left pipe and bounded into the net for Blight's seventh of the year. Reading built the lead to 3-0 when Yannick Riendeau carried from behind the Greenville net to the right side of the crease, where he slipped a beautiful back-door saucer to Eric Castonguay who was planted at the left side of the goal for the slam dunk at the 11:04 mark of the second.

Greenville started to claw back at the 16:40 mark of the first, when Hutchinson misplayed a puck behind the Royals net into the body of the Road Warriors' Sean Berkstresser, who slid the puck to the top of the crease while Hutchinson tried to scramble back into position. The puck hit the leg of the hard-driving Shane Harper and ended up in the net for his eighth of the year. Nine seconds later, Greenville drew within one when Paul McIlveen fired from the high slot. Hutchinson appeared to make the stop, but the puck slipped through and behind Hutchinson and slid towards the goal line where Marc Olivier Vallerand, who jumped over Hutchinson, was able to force it in for his sixteenth of the year.

After a scoreless second during which the Road Warriors held the decided territorial advantage, the Royals got an insurance goal from Casey Haines early in the third. Greenville was awarded their third power play chance of the game at the 1:35 mark of the third; and, during the power play sequence, Jimmy Kilpatrick clanged a cross-bar on a beautiful blast from the high slot. But the Royals dodged that bullet; and got the goal from Haines when Blight stole on the end wall in Greenville's end and slid the puck to the low slot, where a waiting Haines fired a snap shot that deflected off the stick of a Road Warrior player and fluttered over a lunging Grumet-Morris to make it 4-2 3:45 into the third. Greenville pressed down the stretch, but the Royals played a smart, controlled third and got a couple of big stops from Hutchinson to pick up the team's twenty-fifth win of the season.

The Royals face the Elmira Jackals tomorrow (Sunday, January 30, 2011 @ 4:05 pm) at First Arena in Elmira, New York. The Royals game day broadcast will kick off with the pre-game warm-up show presented by The Works at Wyomissing on the Royals Broadcast Network (WRAW 1340 am in Reading, www.1340wraw.com) at 3:35 pm. You can also catch all of the Royals away games this 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.

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