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ECHL Reading Royals

Royals in the pink with win over Johnstown, 4-3

February 1, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Reading, PA - The Reading Royals (25-16-3=53, 3rd North Division) of the ECHL exploded for four first period goals and held on for a 4-3 victory over the Johnstown Chiefs in front of 7,044 at the Sovereign Center in Reading on a night when the Royals' organization sought to raise money and awareness in the effort to find a cure for breast cancer. Reading snapped a string of nine consecutive home games in which the visiting opposition scored the game's first goal when Chris Blight scored 45 seconds into the game, sending the big crowd into an early frenzy. Goaltender Jon Quick (17-10-2; 25/28) made several big stops in the early going and survived several late game scrambles in and around the Reading net to win his sixth game out of his last seven starts. Ryan Nie (13-9-1; 22/26) suffered his second regulation loss of the season to the Royals.

Reading struck 45 seconds into the game when Rob LaLonde stepped up to keep the puck in the offensive zone with his left glove. Blight ended up with the puck low on the left side and carried high into the slot where he turned and fired a wrister that slipped through Nie for his team leading seventeenth goal of the season. The Royals went up by two 5:01 into the first when Patrick Jarrett was the beneficiary of a Johnstown turnover in front of the Chiefs' net. Jarrett, who returned to the Royals line-up tonight after an absence of thirteen games due to injury, settled and ripped from point blank range for his third goal of the year. Reading extended to 3-0 with a power play goal at the 12:46 mark of the first. Jarrett won an offensive zone face-off to Malcolm MacMillan who slid the puck to the right point where Rob LaLonde was waiting. LaLonde stepped down the right side of the slot where he sent a high wrist shot on goal. Nie got a chunk of the puck with his glove hand, but the puck fluttered over the Chiefs' goaltender and into the net for LaLonde's eighth goal of the year.

Johnstown cut the lead to 3-1 sixteen seconds after LaLonde's goal. Mike Sgroi carried into Reading's end and took a low snap shot that slipped between the pads of Quick and trickled across the goal-line for Sgroi's sixteenth of the season. Reading bounced right back, however, twelve seconds later, when Brock Hooton sprang Dany Roussin into the offensive zone. Nie stopped Roussin's bid to jam the puck in, but the rebound fell to the right side of the crease, where Ned Lukacevic, playing in his first game since missing nine straight due to injury, swept in and banged it home for his eleventh goal of the year-and what proved to be his second game winner of the season. Johnstown refused to go away quietly. They picked up a second period goal when Randy Rowe dove at the right side of the Royals' goal to re-direct a Mike Knight shot into the net with 6:05 remaining in the second. Johnstown made it a one-goal game (4-3) with just 5:49 remaining in the third period, when Ryan Garlock snapped a string of 28 consecutive penalty kills for the Royals after a mad scramble in and around the Royals' goal. The Chiefs pressed for the game-tying goal down the stretch, but the Royals-resplendent in their bright pink jerseys-were able to hold off the attack and pick up the team's twelfth victory at home this season (12-6-2); and, after the game, those pink jerseys appeared to bring big money in the auction conducted to raise money for Breast Cancer Support Services of Berks County and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

The Royals return to action tomorrow night (Saturday, February 2; 7:30 pm) when the team-and a full cadre of Road Warriors-travel to First Arena in Elmira, New York to take on the Elmira Jackals. The game night broadcast on Saturday will begin at 7:00 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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