ECHL Reading Royals

Royals' Win Streak Snapped in 200th Meeting With Nailers

January 12, 2023 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Wheeling, WV - The Reading Royals, proud affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers and Lehigh Valley Phantoms, fell to the Wheeling Nailers, 5-2, on Wednesday, January 11th at WesBanco Arena. The Royals fell to 20-10-1 and had their three-game win streak snapped in the road defeat. Nolan Maier suffered his first loss in his last nine starts for Reading as he earned 23 saves on 27 shots faced (8-3-1). Nailers' goalie Bailey Brkin earned the win in his fourth appearance in goal for Wheeling this season (4-2). Brkin turned aside 32 of 34 shots faced in his fourth consecutive win.

Reading converted on their lone power play six minutes into regulation to carry a one-goal lead into the second period, 1-0. Shane Sellar redirected a wrist shot from Charlie Gerard past Brkin's glove to net his 10th goal of the season. Gerard earned the primary assist for his team-leading 10th power play assist of the season while Zayde Wisdom collected the secondary helper for his first ECHL career point.

The Nailers responded in the second period with two goals in the final nine minutes of the middle frame. Bobby Hampton deflected a puck past Maier to even the score 11:19 into the period off of a saucer pass from Cédric Desruisseaux. Hampton's goal set up the Nailers for their first lead of the game on Justin Addamo's first of two goals in the contest. The rookie forward lifted a loose puck past Maier following a shot from Josh Maniscalco from the blue line for his team leading 15th goal of the season.

Wheeling scored an insurance goal 5:55 into the third period to take a two-goal lead courtesy of Davis Bunz' second goal of the season. The rookie forward blasted a one-timer into the back of Reading's net off of a feed from Louie Roehl at the top of the zone.

Charlie Gerard beat Brkin with eight minutes remaining in regulation to draw the game within a goal, 3-2. Wisdom intercepted a puck from Wheeling at their own goal line and threw a shot on net that rebounded off of Brkin's left pad to Gerard in the slot. Gerard's 12th goal earned the forward his 7th multi-point game of the season while the assist earned Wisdom his second helper of the game for a multi-point game in his Royals debut.

Addamo answered nine seconds after Gerard's goal to improve the Nailers lead back to two-goals with 7:50 remaining in the third period. Addamo's second goal of the game swung momentum back over to the Nailers after Reading scored their third period goal on one of their 12 shots in the final frame of play.

An empty net goal scored by Carter Johnson in the final 1:06 of regulation sealed the home victory for Wheeling as the Royals dropped their first game of the new year.

The Royals fall to 2-4 in the season series against Wheeling and dropped the 200th all-time meeting between the two clubs (112-88 all-time). Reading fell to 15-4-1 when scoring the game's first goal and 11-2-1 when leading after the first period.

The Royals return home on Friday, January 13th to host the Adirondack Thunder at 7:00 p.m. at Santander Arena for the Wizards Night promotional game. The home game opens a four-game homestand for the Royals with promotional games at the arena including Flintstones Night (1/14), MLK Day (1/16) and Craft Beer / Puck and Putts Night (1/20).

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ECHL Stories from January 12, 2023


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