ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Pull Out Sixth Win In A Row By Beating Johnstown, 4-3

January 7, 2006 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Las Vegas, NV - The Reading Royals (21-6-2=44) scored with 2:47 remaining to break a 3-3 deadlock and win for the sixth consecutive time, defeating the Johnstown Chiefs 4-3. Playing with a patchwork line-up of 13 skaters that included three new faces, the Royals got goals from two of the new players in the lineup and outstanding goaltending from Yutaka Fukufuji (6-1-1) to extend the team record road winning streak to nine games.

Reading scored on the team's first shift when Larry Courville took control of the puck in the defensive end and found Chris Bala breaking through the neutral zone. Bala passed to himself off the boards and charged into the offensive end. After stopping up short on the left wing wall, Bala fired a tape-to-tape pass to the hard charging Jamie O'Leary, who was signed today and was playing in his 400th regular season pro game. O'Leary re-directed the puck home to score on his first shift of the season and give the Royals a 1-0 lead 1:01 into the first period. Johnstown tied the game at one while on the power play at the 11:11 mark of the first when Gerard Dicaire fired a shot from the left wing point that went wide to the short side and ricocheted off the end wall and came out on the other side of the goal where Jean Desrochers was planted and was able to jam the puck back in the net. With time winding down in the first, the Royals regained the lead when Grant Jacobsen fired a cross-ice saucer off the left wing wall to a net-crashing Jason Kostadine, who was acquired by the Royals today in a trade with the Stockton Thunder. Kostadine re-directed the puck to the upper reaches of the net with just 1:12 remaining in the period for his first goal of the season, after playing 23 games with the Thunder without scoring one.

In the second, the Royals took a 3-1 lead when Chris Bala took off on a short-handed break after a neutral zone steal. Johnstown goaltender, Jonathan Boutin made a great stop on the break, but Bala didn't give up on the puck, corralling the rebound and feeding the trailing Doug Christiansen, who put it in for the Royals' fifth short-handed goal in the team's last seven games. In the third, the Chiefs charged back getting back-to-back goals from Dmitri Tarabrin (at 6:44) and Paul Caponigri (at 13:55) to tie things at three. But with time winding down, the Royals' Bala took control of a loose puck low in the right circle and found T.J. Kemp sneaking up on the back-door for the cross-ice feed. Kemp redirected the puck towards an essentially open net, but the puck ricocheted off the cross bar and went directly back to Bala, who quickly fired the puck into the net with just 2:47 remaining to pull off the dramatic win.

The Royals' season long seven game road trip concludes on Saturday night in Trenton, when Reading takes on the Titans at 7:00 pm. The Royals then return home on Tuesday, January 10, against the Wheeling Nailers in a game sponsored by the Pennsylvania Lottery. 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 7, 2006


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