ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Fall in OT to Florida, 4-3

Published on December 28, 2010 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Reading, PA - The Reading Royals of the ECHL (1st Atlantic Division, 19-9-1-039), affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, were defeated in overtime by the Florida Everblades (2nd South Division, 20-12-0-141), 4-3, at Sovereign Center in Reading, Pennsylvania. Reading held two separate two goal leads, including one late in the third period, but the Everblades clawed back by scoring on both ends of a late game five-on-three power play to get to OT, where they pulled out the two points. Goaltender Matt Dalton (otl, 11-6-1-0, 37/41) sustained his first overtime loss of the year. Florida's Bobby Goepfert (win, 12-6-0-1, 30/33) kept his team alive long enough to give them the chance they needed to win. Reading's power play couldn't connect on five chances with the man advantage, including one with 1:42 left in regulation (0-5); but did give up a short-handed goal. Florida's power play came through when it needed to-scoring twice in a span 1:16 with less than five minutes remaining (2-6).

Reading struck 2:30 into the game on the team's first shot of the night. Rob Slaney stole in the neutral zone, carried into the offensive end and ripped a shot from the top of the left circle that blew by Geopfert, hit the right pipe and ricocheted in for his fourth of the season. That goal extended Slaney's goal scoring streak to three games. Reading extended their lead to 2-0 16:45 into the first on a perfect tic-tac-toe passing play started by Yannick Riendeau to Ryan Cruthers to Ben Gordon, who finished with a back-door tap in for his eleventh of the year.

In the second, Florida broke through with a short-handed goal when Mitch Fadden took off on a two-on-one break with Francis Lemieux. Fadden carried deep into the zone on the right side and fed Lemieux, who snuck up on the back door to slip it through Dalton for his thirteenth of the year.

In the third, Reading regained the two goal lead when Louis Liotti sprang Riendeau with a long breakout pass to the offensive blue line. Riendeau broke in and broke off a forehand-backhand-forehand-stuff for his fifth of the year to make it 3-1 Reading 6:54 into the final frame. All looked good for the Royals until late in the third, when Riendeau picked up a hooking minor to send the vaunted Florida power play to work. While killing that power play opportunity, Reading's Casey Haines was assessed a delay of game penalty for chipping one out of play from the defensive zone. That gave the Everblades 0:41 of five on three at the 15:45 mark of the third. Thirty-two seconds later, Fadden converted on the front-end of the five-on-three when he ripped a perfect shot from deep along the goal-line on the right side short-side bar-and-in for his fifteenth of the year. Florida then tied things 1:16 after that when Mike MacKenzie also went bar-and-in on the other side of the net-the left side-with an unbelievable backhand from an impossibly tight angle.

In overtime, the Everblades took the two points when Ethan Graham fired from the high slot and Matthew Pistilli floated across the top of the crease for a perfect re-direct that beat Dalton to the stick side for Pistilli's league leading fifth game winner of the season.

The Royals and Everblades go at it again on Thursday night (December 30 @ 7:05 pm) at the Sovereign Center. The Royals will turn back the clock that night and the first 2000 fans will receive a Tenth Anniversary commemorative pin. The Royals game night 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 6:35 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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