ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Knock Off Gladiators, 6-3

Published on March 24, 2010 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Duluth, GA - The Reading Royals of the ECHL (34-27-1-4=73, 2nd East Division), affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, defeated the Gwinnett Gladiators (30-29-4-3=67, 4th South Division), 6-3, at The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia. The win stretched the Royals unbeaten streak to four games (3-0-0-1) and jumped Reading into the seventh slot in the ECHL's American Conference race to make the playoffs. The Royals scored first and held four separate two goal leads before finally closing the Gladiators out with a short-handed empty netter with ten seconds remaining. Matt Dalton (20-19-0-3; 41/43) won for the first time in three starts against Gwinnett (1-2-0-0). The Gladiators' David Brown (9-14-3-0; 23/28, 1 eng) lost his first start against Reading. The Royals' power play was held off the board (0-4); while the Gladiators picked up two of their goals on the power play (2-8)-but the Royals' PK came up with three big consecutive kills in the third period.

Reading struck 4:49 into the first while playing short-handed for the first time in the game. Andrew Sarauer carried off the rush deep into the right circle and fired a hard snap shot on net. Brown made the stop but the puck bounded off his blocker to the left side of the net, where Ryan Cruthers batted it in for his twentieth of the year. The Royals took the team's first two goal lead of the game 7:41 into the first when Sarauer carried into the offensive end and dropped a perfect pass to the trailing defenseman-Aaron Brocklehurst (who was traded to Reading from Gwinnett on February 1)-who ripped a perfect snap shot high glove side that beat Brown for Brocklehurst's thirteenth of the year. The Gladiators got on the board with their first power play goal of the night 10:19 into the first. The Royals penalty killers got caught up ice as Mike McLean charged in transition into the Royals' end. McLean dished to Matt Francis, who had just joined the power play unit from the bench. Francis ripped a perfect shot from the high slot that clipped the left pipe and went in for his eighteenth of the year.

Reading took the team's second two goal lead of the game at the 13:13 of the second, after a broken play in the offensive end, when Olivier Labelle quickly corralled and shot out of the left circle, beating Brown to the short-side for his twenty-third of the year. Gwinnett cut the lead to one 1:49 later with their second power play goal of the game. On this one, Adam Berti threw a perfect cross-ice pass out of the right circle to the top of the left circle where Drew Paris uncorked a one timer that blew by Dalton on the short side for his twelfth of the year-and eighth on the power play. Reading re-gained the two goal lead twenty-three seconds after that, when Cruthers kept the puck in the offensive zone with a strong play on the right wall. Ben Gordon took possession in the right circle and fired a shot on net. Brown made the stop, but the rebound fell to the top of the crease, where Daniel Steiner stuffed it back in for his twelfth of the season. That two goal lead for Reading lasted all of seventeen seconds, as the Gladiators came right down the ice and made it a 4-3 game when Tom Zanoski slid a back-hand under Dalton for his twenty-fourth of the year.

But Reading bounced back with 43.5 seconds left in the second when Cruthers once again made a great play on the wall-this time on the left wing side in the offensive zone-to free the puck towards the center of the slot. Gordon settled the fluttering puck with the glove and dished to Steiner, who found an open space on the ice in the interior portion of the right circle. Steiner ripped a high and hard snap shot that beat Brown to the glove side for his second of the game and thirteenth of the season to give Reading a 5-3 lead as the teams headed into the third period. In that third period, the Gladiators charged hard, but the Royals held them off-which included killing three critical power plays down the stretch. Cruthers picked up a short-handed empty netter with 10 seconds left to ice the victory for the Royals, who kicked off their season long six game road trip with their fourteenth road win of the season (14-15-1-1).

Reading next travels to the North Charleston Coliseum in North Charleston, South Carolina, to take on the defending Kelly Cup Champion South Carolina Stingrays on Friday (March 26, 2010 @ 7:05 pm). The Royals game night broadcast on the Royals Radio Network presented by Transmissions by Arbogast will begin at 6:35 pm.

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