Royals Fall In Crazy Seesaw Battle In Cincinnati, 8-6
Published on January 6, 2008 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release
Cincinnati, OH - The Reading Royals (18-12-3=39, 3rd North Division) of the ECHL, showing uncanny resiliency despite playing with a short and make-shift lineup, bounced back to tie the first place Cincinnati Cyclones three separate times, but couldn't hold on down the stretch, as the Cyclones won 8-6 at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. In what can only be described a crazy see-saw battle, the Royals actually held two separate two goal first period leads, but the Cyclones, who have the number one offense in the league, turned on the heat and took three separate leads of their own before getting the eventual game winner with just 2:30 remaining in the game. Reading's goaltender Jon Quick (10-8-2; 33/40; 1 eng) made a seemingly never-ending series of spectacular saves, despite giving up seven goals; while Cincinnati's Dov Grumet-Morris (14-2-1; 18/24) stretched his personal unbeaten streak to thirteen games (12-0-1) with his second win of the season against Reading.
Reading struck first 13:00 minutes into the game when Brett Hemingway ripped a blast off the top of the right circle that beat Grumet-Morris to the stick side for his ninth goal of the year-and second in two games. The Royals took a 2-0 lead 1:51 later when a puck ricocheted off one of the glass supports behind the Cyclone net and popped right in front of the goal, and newcomer Tom Boudreau slipped the puck under Grumet-Morris for his first ECHL goal. The Cyclones got on the board at the 17:36 mark of the first when Tyler Howells took a Jean-Michel Daoust feed low in the left circle and buried it for his seventh goal of the year. Reading regained the two-goal lead at the 18:07 mark of the first when Ned Lukacevic was awarded a penalty shot. Lukacevic did not waste the chance picking up his tenth goal of the year by burying his shot to become the third player in Royals' team history to score on a penalty shot.
Cincinnati turned on the heat right off the hop in the second period-racking up three consecutive goals to take a 4-3 lead. It started when the Cyclones got an early power play chance, and Daoust finished on a back-door play, twenty-eight seconds into the period. Nine seconds after that, James Sixsmith put back a rebound on a quick shot immediately after the face-off to restart play. Then, at the 6:05 mark of the second, in one of several strange goals in this game, Thomas Beauregard carried deep into the Royals end, lost control of the under a sliding Shawn Germain in front of the Royals net; however, the puck slid free at the worst possible moment and Beauregard slipped it home before Quick could find it. The Royals responded to re-tie the game at four when Dany Roussin finished on a brilliant cross-ice back-door feed from Charlie Kronschnabel while the Royals were on the power play at the 12:12 mark of the second. 55 seconds later Cincinnati regained the one-goal lead on a five-on-three power play goal. Beauregard set up Jason Deitsch between the hash marks, and he ripped a one-timer behind Quick to make it 5-4, Cincinnati. Reading tied it up again1:04 later when Kronschnabel bagged a short-handed blast off the rush out of the left circle.
Cincinnati regained the one-goal lead (6-5) 1:38 into the third while on the power play (again) after a multi-shot scramble in front gave Beauregard an opportunity to back-hand one home from the left side of the net. For the third time, Reading responded to tie things up at the 7:02 mark of the third on a P.J. Atherton snap shot from the high slot just as a power play expired. Quick kept the Royals' hopes alive with several highlight reel stops in the third, but the Cyclones got what proved to be the game winner when Barrett Eghoetz took a shot from the top of the right circle that pinballed off a Royals' defender and Cyclone forward Travis Fuller and ended up in the net with just 2:30 remaining. The Cyclones' Beauregard added an empty netter (to register the hattrick) with a minute remaining to foil the Royals' last gasp effort to tie it up one more time.
The Royals four game road trip continues on Tuesday night when they will face the Dayton Bombers at the E.J. Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio (7:00 pm). The game night broadcast on Friday will begin at 6:30 pm with the pre-game warm-up show on ESPN Radio 1240 am in Ephrata, as well as on the internet through the Royals' website, www.royalshockey.com. Streaming video is available on a pay per view basis through the B2 Networks.
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