ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Fall to Stingrays, 4-1

Published on October 27, 2011 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Reading, PA - The Reading Royals of the ECHL (2-2-1-05, 3rd Atlantic Division), 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 by the South Carolina Stingrays (3-2-0-06, t-1st South Division), 4-1, at the Sovereign Center in Reading, Pennsylvania. Reading scored the game's first goal, but South Carolina ran off four unanswered to hand the Royals their second straight loss.

Goaltender Karel St. Laurent (loss, 0-1-0-0; 21/25) sustained the loss in his first outing for the Royals after being left to his own defenses at several critical moments. The Stingrays' Philipp Grubauer (2-0-0-0, 27/28) played a poised and positional style that didn't allow for many second chances for the Royals. Reading's power play was held off the board (0-3), while South Carolina stuck a third period dagger in the Royals' heart with their lone power play goal (1-4).

After a scoreless first, Reading struck first 37 seconds into the second period, when Casey Haines won an offensive zone face-off and then redirected a low hard shot from the left point by Rob Kwiet between Grubauer's legs to give Reading the team's first even strength goal in 185:32 of game time. For Haines, it was his second goal of the year. 4:14 later, South Carolina tied the game when Danick Paquette made a power move from deep in left circle to the top of the crease. St. Laurent made the initial stop on the stuff attempt, but the rebound slid right back to Paquette who won the battle to punch the puck back in.

With 56.8 seconds left in the second, the Stingrays got what proved to be the game winner, when Trevor Campbell blew by a Royals defender down the left wing side deep into the left circle and feigned as if he intended to shoot; but instead passed back to the middle where a charging David DeKostrozza stepped in and tapped it home for his second of the season.

South Carolina added insurance with a pair in the third. The first, a power play goal by Jerry Pollastrone, came when deKastrozza won a battle below the goal line and fed the puck back out in front to a wide-open and waiting Pollastrone, who buried it bar and in 6:02 into the final period. With 5:55 left in regulation, the Stingrays tacked on another in a similar play-this time it was Anthony Maiani who dug the puck out from behind the Royals' net and fed Danick Paquette our front. Paquette quickly went top shelf for his second of the night and third of the season. That pretty much took the air out of this one, as the Royals fell to 1-2-0-0 at the Sovereign Center.

The Royals travel to Sun National Bank Center in Trenton, New Jersey, to face their first divisional opponent of the season-the Trenton Titans-on Friday night (October 28, 2011 @ 7:00 pm). The game night broadcast, presented by Boscov's Travel and the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, will kick off at 6:30 pm with the Red Robin Gourmet Burger pre-game warm-up show on ESPN Radio 1240 am in Reading. The game will be televised locally in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on BCTV.

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics

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



ECHL Stories from October 27, 2011


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