Trenton Drops Back and Forth Match, 5-4

Published on December 4, 2009 under ECHL (ECHL)
Trenton Devils News Release


Trenton, NJ - The Reading Royals defeated the Trenton Devils by a score of 5-4, giving the Royals four wins against the Devils in just as many games. Danick Bouchard registered two power play goals while Charlie Kronschnabel scored the eventual game-winner. Matt Dalton earned the win with 39 saves, improving his record to 4-4-0-0 while Gerald Coleman falls to 5-4-0-2 with 23 saves for Trenton.

Kory Nagy began the scoring 8:16 into the first with his fourth goal of the season. Ryan Ginand earned his first ECHL point by sending the puck to Kyle Kucharski behind the opposing goal. Shielding the puck with his body with his back toward the play, Kucharski whipped a pass out in front to Nagy who made no mistake, slamming the puck past Royals goaltender Matt Dalton.

Just over two and a half minutes later, the Royals evened the score at 1-1 on a power play goal by Ben Gordon. David Leaderer was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty which gave the Royals an offensive zone faceoff to the right of the Devils' goal. Ryan Cruthers won the draw cleanly to Gordon who fired a wrist shot over the right shoulder of Coleman for his team leading 11th goal of the season.

Trevor Kell regained the lead for Trenton with just 49 seconds left in the first period. Dan Eves made a beautiful feed from the goal line in the left wing corner right on the tape of Trevor Kell, beating Dalton for his fifth goal of the season.

The Royals opened the second with a goal just 1:11 into the period on Daniel Steiner's unassisted tally, after he picked Justin Pender's pocket in front of the Reading Bench, and the game was retied 2-2.

Reading took its first lead of the game on another power play tally, this time from the stick of Danick Bouchard. Rob Kwiet gathered the puck behind the goal line on Coleman's left and fed the puck to Bouchard who was loosely covered in the low slot. Bouchard quickly snapped a one-timer to the back of the net for his sixth goal this season and a 3-2 Royals edge.

Trenton finally scored a power play goal of its own to make it 3-3 13:25 into the second period. The Devil's power play peppered Dalton with shots from the low slot as Prough and Kell collected assists on Leaderer's rebound goal. Leaderer read the play perfectly, coming and closer and closer from the weak right wing until he was all alone in the low slot with the rebound on his stick.

Coleman preserved the tie with just seconds to go in the second period on a fantastic save, diving across the goal mouth left to right to stop the puck from going into the wide open net.

Danick Bouchard scored his second power play goal of the game 4:09 into the third period, shortly followed by an even strength goal by Charlie Kronschnabel at 5:23 to put the Royals up 5-3.

The Royals had another chance to score on a two-on-one rush minutes later, however Andrew Saraurer's pass went to the corner as he crashed into Gerald Coleman. Justin Pender performed his defensive duty, sticking up for his goaltender by pummeling Saraurer in a fight at center ice. Both players were assessed five minute fighting majors, while Pender was given an instigating minor and Sarauer interference on the goalkeeper as well.

The Devils' aggressive play continued as Dan Eves took a five-minute boarding major and 10 minute game misconduct at 8:53. With a minute and a half left in the penalty kill, Jeff Prough flew down the right wing side with defenseman Tim Kunes charging to the net on a two-on-two rush. Prough placed a beautiful cross-ice pass just out of the reach of the Royals defender as Kunes got himself to the exact spot to redirect the puck into a wide open net for his second goal of the season.

Solid fore-checking by Jeff Prough and the Devils led to a Joey Ryan interference penalty with just over 3 minutes left, however the Devils could not convert, the score remaining 5-4. The Devils offensive zone pressure continued to the very end as Gerald Coleman was pulled for the extra attacker, however the Devils could not put the tying goal past Matt Dalton, falling to the Royals by a final score of 5-4.

The Devils and Royals play each other two more times this weekend, traveling to Reading for a 7:05 Saturday game and back to Trenton for Sunday's 4:00 matinee.

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ECHL Stories from December 4, 2009


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