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ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Hold Off Ice Dogs, 4-3

December 10, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Reading, PA - At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Reading Royals (14-3-1=29) continued a season-long trend of spreading the scoring around, getting four goals from four different players in a 4-3 win over the Long Beach Ice Dogs at the Sovereign Center. Reading goaltender, Cody Rudkowsky, made several big stops at big moments-including the save of the game with the glove on a bouncing re-directed puck with 3.8 seconds left-to win his tenth game of the season and his seventh in a row.

The Ice Dogs put the Royals on their heels early, got the first seven shots of the game, and scored the game's first goal on the power play, when Ash Goldie fired a puck off the top of the right circle that appeared to hit something, change direction and beat Rudkowsky at the 6:00 minute mark of the first period. The Royals found their legs and found pay dirt at the 12:53 mark of the first, when Jon Francisco made a deft pass from behind the Long Beach net to Mike Pandolfo who wasted no time with the one-time shot that beat the Ice Dogs' goaltender, Greg Hewitt, to tie things at one. Reading the went up 2-1 with a power play goal of their own on a blast by Francisco at the 14:03 mark of the first.

The Royals took a two goal lead (at 3-1) 55 seconds into the second, when Eric Werner sent Greg Hogeboom on a breakaway with a blue-line to blue-line pass. Hogeboom did not waste the chance as he extended his personal point streak to ten games with a nice deek and shot on Hewitt. But the Ice Dogs took control of the rest of the second period, out-shooting the Royals 15-4, and they made it a one-goal game again at the 15:21 mark of the second when Justin Aikens beat Rudkowsky with a shot from the slot.

In the third, the Royals struck early again-35 seconds in to be exact-when Dany Roussin scored his second goal in as many games for the Royals. While the Reading was on the power play, Roussin was able to corral a loose puck out in front of the net after Hewitt had made a nice stop on Hogeboom to score what proved to be the game winning goal. In doing so, Roussin became the 13th member of the Royals to score a game winning goal (out of fourteen wins in just 18 total games). Again, however, the Ice Dogs would not go away quietly, as Aikens scored his second of the night on a shot off the top of the right circle with just 6:29 remaining. The Royals were able to hold on down the stretch thanks in large part to the goaltending of Rudkowsky, who made the save of the game with time about to expire to preserve the win for Reading.

The Royals face the Long Beach Ice Dogs again on Sunday afternoon (1:05 pm). The first one thousand fans will receive Couch Potatoes, courtesy of Van Bennett Foods, and the first two thousand fans will receive Comcast Thundersticks. The Royals are back in action this Tuesday night as they face off against the Wheeling Nailers at 7:05 p.m. The first two thousand fans through the doors will receive the second trading card set in a series of five commemorating the Royals fifth anniversary season, courtesy of Rieck's Printing. In addition, the US Women's National Team, which will be playing Finland in the Sovereign Center on Wednesday, December 14th, will be available between the first and second intermissions of Tuesday's Royals game to sign autographs and meet the fans. Tickets for the Team USA hockey game are available at the Sovereign Center Box Office.

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