ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Win Wild One in Florida, 5-4

January 23, 2011 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Estero, FL - The Reading Royals of the ECHL (1st Atlantic Division, 24-11-2-2=52), affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, defeated by the Florida Everblades (2nd South Division, 25-18-0-2=52), 5-4, at Germain Arena in Estero, Florida. For the second time this season, the Royals came back from a three goal deficit, scoring four consecutive goals in the second period to take the two points. This game, which included a multi-player melee in the latter stages of the first period, marked the thirteenth come-from-behind win of the year for Reading and the team's sixteenth one-goal win of the season (16-4-2-2). This game also snapped a four game winless streak for Reading and marked the first win of the year for Reading at Germain Arena in the final matchup of the regular season between the Royals and Everblades.

Royals goaltender Zane Kalemba (no decision, 15/19, 22:28) started with Michael Hutchinson (win, 4-2-1-2, 17/17 in 37:32) coming on in substitution with Reading trailing 4-1 early in the second period. Bobby Goepfert (loss, 17-9-0-2, 30/35) sustained his second loss of the year to Reading (3-2-0-0). In a game that included 135 total penalty minutes, the Royals power play came through twice, including a critical crazy-bounce goal that sparked the second period scoring spree (2-7). For the second consecutive game, the Royals PK kept the Florida power play off the board (0-8), despite enjoying two long sequences of five-on-three-one 1:35 in length and the other a full two minutes long.

Florida started the scoring 8:06 into the game when Drew Larman slid a pass from below the goal line to the low left slot where a waiting Alex Hutchings slipped it through Kalemba for his seventh of the season. 14:47 into the first, a wild brawl broke out when Reading's Brett Gallant and Alexandre Imbeault got over-active with the sticks as the two teams were lining up for a face-off. Multiple fights erupted and multiple players left the teams' respective benches to get involved. It wasn't pretty. The end result was three players from each team ejected from the game. The Royals also lost the services of defenseman Rob Kwiet, who was injured as the result of the actions of Florida's Mike Egener, who received a five minute major for intentionally attempting to injure Kwiet (and a game misconduct as a third man in the fight). Shortly after the fracas, with the two teams playing four-on-four, the Everblades extended their lead to 2-0 when Francis Lemieux broke free in the low slot and flipped a back-hand by Kalemba 15:44 into the first. The Royals ultimately got the team's first power play chance of the night later in the first as a result of the major assessed to Egener. Reading broke through on that opportunity with the man advantage when Gordon back-handed a bounding puck that had come off the body of Geopfert for Gordon's eighteenth of the year with just 1:11 remaining in the period.

The Everblades struck quickly with back-to-back goals in the second. Thirty-nine seconds into the period, Lemieux beat everyone to the top of the crease and scored his second of the night when he re-directed a Hutchings' pass from the left wing side. Lemieux completed the hattrick 1:54 later when the Royals turned one over at the defensive blue line, allowing Lemieux to get a clean look from the mid-slot and blow one by Kalemba high stick side for his twentieth of the year to give the Everblades a 4-1 lead.

Reading began the dramatic comeback 4:33 into the second while playing with the man advantage. Jared Ross, who (along with his defensive pair Cody Wild) would end up with three assists, rimmed one into the offensive zone that caught a bad joint in the boards and, with goaltender Geopfert out of the net, ricocheted across the crease and hit the left pipe. The puck bounded into the air and Royals forward Casey Haines took a whack at it. Somehow, the puck stayed out of the net, but Gordon found it shortly thereafter; and before Goepfert could get back in the net, punched it home for his second of the night and nineteenth of the year. Twenty-six seconds after that, Chris Blight dug one off the left half-wall and found John Scrymgeour in the mid-slot. Scrymgeour ripped a snap shot high glove side for his third of the year. Scrymgeour tied the game at four at the 13:43 mark of the second when he punched back the rebound of a Blight shot from in tight. Thirty-six seconds after that, the Royals got what proved to be the game winner, when Ross uncorked a cannon from the right point that Devin Timberlake redirected in a downward direction through the legs of Geopfert for his fifth of the season.

From that point forward, neither team was able to break through-but that wasn't because there weren't opportunities. The two goaltenders at that point-Hutchinson and Goepfert-traded some big stops at big moments with the Royals holding off the Everblades for the team's fourteenth road win of the year (14-6-1-1) in one of the craziest comebacks in the ten year history of the team.

The Royals are off to next Friday (January 28, 2011 @ 7:05 pm) when they'll face the Greenville Road Warriors for the first time this season at the Sovereign Center in Reading, Pennsylvania. That night the Royals will host Educator Appreciation Night courtesy of Bellco Federal Credit Union with the first 3000 fans receiving a Royals whipe-board. The Royals game day broadcast will kick off with the pre-game warm-up show presented by The Works at Wyomissing on the Royals Broadcast Network (WRAW 1340 am in Reading, www.1340wraw.com) at 6:35 pm. You can also catch all of the Royals away games this season 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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