ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Stumble out of the Gate in Trenton, 6-4

Published on October 17, 2010 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Trenton, NJ- The Reading Royals of the ECHL (t-2nd Atlantic Division, 1-1-0-02), affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, were defeated by the Trenton Devils (t-2nd Atlantic Division, 1-1-0-02), 6-4, at the Sun National Bank Center in Trenton, New Jersey. The Royals fell behind on the first shot of the game twelve seconds after the opening face-off, found themselves down 4-0 in the first 7:13, and despite a credible comeback effort were never able to claw their way back in. Goaltender Adam Courchaine (no decision, 0-0-0-0, 5/9 in 7:13) had a rocky go in his first start as a Royal. Ben Scrivens (loss, 1-1-0-0, 23/24 in 50:42, 1 eng) was the hard-luck loser after coming on in substitution and giving his team a chance to mount the comeback effort. Trenton's Jeff Lerg (1-0-0-0, 36/40) avenged the loss to the Royals at the Sovereign Center in Reading in Game 72 of the regular season last year. Reading's first goal was scored while the team was playing with the man advantage (1-4). Trenton also scored on their first power play chance (1-5), but the Royals PK kept them off the board in the crunch moments down the stretch.

Trenton scored on their first shot, when a neutral zone turnover right off the opening faceoff opened the door for Trevor Kell to walk to the top of the right circle and rocket a perfect shot low blocker on Courchaine fourteen seconds into the game. Kell scored on his second shot, as well, 3:27 into the first, when he walked into the offensive end on a two-on-one, used Darcy Zajac as a decoy, and ripped one from the slot high glove side. The Devils extended the lead to 3-0, when Ryan Ginand beat Courchaine from the right circle while Trenton was on the power play 7:02 into the game. Eleven seconds later, Kory Nagy made it 4-0 when he fired one from wide on the left side that beat Courchaine high glove side.

The Royals then began the long climb back in, scoring on the team's first power play chance, when Matt Caruana walked the goal line at the right side of the net and tried to jam the puck home. Lerg made the stop on that, but Eric Castonguay found the rebound and went top shelf with Lerg on the ground for his first goal as a Royal at the 14:03 mark of the first. Reading then cut the lead to 4-2 when Mikhail Stefanovich fired a hard snap shot from the high slot that Lerg had to fight off. The puck fell behind Lerg and to his left, where Ryan Cruthers was able to sneak in and jam it into the net for his third goal of the year at 18:56 of the first. But the Devils got what proved to be the game winner 19 seconds later, when Jeff Prough somehow got off a deadly back-hand from between the hash marks as he was falling to the ground that beat Scrivens bar-and-in.

After a lackluster second, the Royals made it a two-goal game again (5-3) when Casey Haines scored his first goal as a pro on a one-time blast from the slot after Stefanovich found him with a perfect pass from below the goal line at the 4:25 mark of the third. Late in the third, the Royals got into penalty problems when Olivier Labelle picked up a major for spearing followed by a boarding penalty on Todd Perry. Reading weathered that storm long enough to allow the Devils to take some penalties of their own, ultimately resulting in a four-on-four situation on which the Royals scored. On that one, the Royals Ryan Cruthers fired a perfect pass from high on the right side to Josh Engel who stepped deep into the zone on the back-door for a hard blast behind Lerg. The Royals tried to push at that point, but when Rob Slaney missed the net on a breakaway just as Reading was pulling their goaltender, the Devils capitalized with an empty netter by Ryan Ginand with 1:07 left in regulation to make it 6-4.

The Royals host the team's tenth anniversary home opener on Saturday, October 23, 2010 (7:05 pm), when the Elmira Jackals visit the Sovereign Center. Also, be sure to catch all of the team's away games this year-on Royals TV exclusively on BCTV courtesy of Boscov's Travel, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Season tickets for the Royals' 2010-11 season are currently available. To become a part of Royals hockey, call 610-898-PUCK or log onto www.royalshockey.com .

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