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ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Win Wild One Over Devils, 6-5

February 7, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Trenton, NJ - The Reading Royals (15-29-4= 35; 7th North Division) of the ECHL got a power play goal with 1:48 remaining in overtime to defeat the Trenton Devils, 6-5, at Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey. The victory, which snapped a four game winless streak for Reading (0-2-2), marked the first time this season that the Royals have won in overtime. This game, which featured wild swings of momentum back and forth, also marked the third time in the last four games that the Royals ended regulation time in a tie with the opposition. Michael Ouzas (win, 15-12-1; 40/45) battled through several barrages from the Devils to bag the win; while Trenton's Gerald Coleman (OTL, 16-3-1-1) lost in overtime for the first time this year. For only the second game this season, the Royals scored three goals on the power play (3-5), including the OT game winner by Pat Wellar. For the second consecutive night, the Royals penalty killers kept the Devils PP off the board (0-4), including a 1:11 stretch of five-on-three in the second period.

Reading struck 2:52 into the game, when Tyler Doig blew by everyone in the neutral zone and carried towards the left side of the Devils' net. At the last possible moment, Doig dished to Mac Faulkner on the back door, and Faulkner tapped it in for his fourteenth of the year. Reading took their first two goal lead of the game with the team's first power play goal of the night at the 15:12 mark of the first, when Chris Stevens deflected a Pat Wellar wrist shot from the high slot for his first of the night and twelfth of the season.

Trenton bounced right back with a pair of goals of their own starting 1:47 after the Royals took the 2-0 lead. On the first, Brad Snetsinger walked out from behind the Royals' goal and back-handed a shot that deflected off a Reading stick into the upper portion of the net for Snetsinger's eleventh of the year. 1:30 later, the Devils tied the game at two when Jeremy Akeson was allowed to walk uncontested directly from the right half-wall to the top of the Royals' crease where he beat Ouzas for his eighth of the year.

The Devils took a 3-2 lead 9:17 into the second period, when Akeson fired a pass out of the left corner that hit Trevor Kell in the skates and caromed towards the Royals' net where it hit another skate blade-this one belonging to a Reading defender-and ended up in the net, giving Kell his fourteenth of the year. But the Royals bounced back to tie on a crazy goal of their own at the 15:14 mark of the second. Reading had been called for too many men on the ice, and Doig served the bench minor for the team. As he came out of the penalty box, Wellar sent a long clearing shot into Trenton's end that Doig got to first. Doig then slipped the puck to the mid-slot where Stevens, who was well-guarded, was able to slide it back towards the left side of the net. Doig, who was coming back towards the front of the net, then stuck out his stick and deflected it into the Trenton goal.

In the third, the Royals' rebuilt a two-goal lead with a couple of goals separated by only thirty-five seconds. The first, which came at the 6:27 mark of the third, came while Reading was on the power play. David Nimmo sent a pass from behind the Trenton net to Rob LaLonde who had snuck down from the left point to deep in the left circle where he fired a shot behind Coleman for his second power play goal in as many games-and his fourth of the season. Thirty-five seconds later, the Royals went up 5-3, when Stevens made a power move down the right wing side directly to the Devil goal where he forced a shot through for his second of the night and thirteenth of the year.

The Devils bounced right back, however, with a pair of their own, starting only 1:26 after the Royals' went up by two. On the first one, Brad Snetsinger took a hard shot from low in the right circle that Ouzas kicked out-but the rebound went out to the center of the slot where Scott Bartlett was able to slip a back-hand through for his third of the year. 1:37 after that, Matt Cohen threw a seemingly harmless wrister from the right point that appeared to hit something or someone on the way in and deflect over the left arm of Ouzas to re-tie the game at five.

The teams traded chances over the final ten minutes of the third, but no one was able to resolve it in regulation. In overtime, the Royals avenged their OTL to Trenton yesterday with a power play goal. After a relatively long period of sustained offensive zone pressure, a wild scramble ensued around the Devils' goal, which ended when Pat Wellar slipped in his first goal of the season to win the game with only 1:48 remaining in overtime.

The Royals are off until next Friday night (February 13 @ 7:05 pm et) when the team's season long seven game road trip continues at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where the Royals will face the Johnstown Chiefs. Next Friday's game will be broadcast live on the Royals Radio Network Presented by Transmissions by Arbogast (True Oldies WRAW 1340 am in Reading; and The Ticket WLAN 1390 am in Lancaster), as well as on the internet via webcast hosted by Sportsjuice.com, which can be accessed through the Royals website. To become a part of Royals hockey, call 610-898-PUCK or log onto www.royalshockey.com.

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