ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Pull Off Second Consecutive Third Period Comeback To Beat Wheeling, 4-2

January 14, 2006 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Johnstown, PA - For the second night in a row, the Reading Royals (23-8-2=48) pulled off a third period comeback after entering the final period trailing the opposition, picking up three unanswered third period goals (including an empty netter) to defeat the Wheeling Nailers, 4-2. The Royals, who entered this game with the top power play unit in the ECHL, got three of their goals with the man advantage, including two in the third period by Dany Roussin, who had his first multi-goal game as a professional. With this win, the Royals snapped a five game home winless streak and jumped into a tie for first place in the North Division with the Nailers.

The Royals got on the board first, while on the power play, when goaltender Yutaka Fukufuji (27/29, 8-3-1) passed the puck in the defensive zone to Chris Bala, who took off on an end-to-end rush to the Wheeling net. The Nailers' goaltender, Andy Franck, rejected Bala's shot but the rebound bounced out front where Graig Mischler was able to corral the loose puck and put it in at the 14:09 mark for the 1-0 lead. The Nailers quickly answered with a power play goal of their own, when Sean Collins took control behind the Royals' net and found Brendon Hodge planted in front of the goal. Hodge took a quick snap shot that beat Fukufuji low to the stick side to tie things at one at the 17:31 mark of the first.

In the second, the Nailers took control of the flow of the game and were able to take a 2-1 lead when Luis Tremblay fired a slap shot from the right wing point that pinballed through traffic and snuck into the Royals' net at the 15:04 mark. In the third, the Royals turned up the energy and physicality, but they were not able to tie it up until the 9:42 mark when once again the power play unit struck. This time Bala fed Mike Kompon, who floated through the slot and threaded a perfect pass to Roussin at the right side of the Nailers net. Roussin, in turn, found pay dirt high on the short side to tie things at two. Late in the period, the Royals had another power play chance when Wheeling's Cliff Loya was called for delay of game for shooting the puck out of play from the defensive zone. Once again, the power play unit went to work with a brilliant tick-tac-toe passing sequence that involved every member of the pp; but it was Doug Christiansen who found Kompon in front of the Nailers' net, who in turn found Roussin (again), who in turn buried the shot from the right side of the net (again) to get the game winner with just 1:12 remaining. Grant Jacobsen added an empty netter with 20 seconds left, which sent the 6901 at the Sovereign Center into full on celebration mode of the first home win for the Royals in thirty-five days.

The Royals are back in action on Sunday at 1:00 pm against the Toledo Storm, when the first 2500 fans in attendance receive a Royals' poster courtesy of the Reading Eagle and the first 2000 fans get Comcast Thundersticks. Royals' game day broadcasts can be heard on ESPN Radio 1240 am in Ephrata and www.royalshockey.com with pre-game beginning 30 minutes before the opening face-off. Streaming video is also available through the Royals' website on a pay per view basis provided by B2 Networks.

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ECHL Stories from January 14, 2006


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