Royals Hold On for Win Over Wheeling, 2-1

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals (win, 6-3-0-0=12) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League and the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League, defeated the Wheeling Nailers (3-5-0-1=7), 2-1, at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania.

The Royals scored a pair of second period power play goals and held strong during a hard, late game push from the Nailers to record the team’s fourth straight win. Goaltender Riley Gill (win, 4-2-0-0, 21/22) didn’t see an excessive amount of activity, but when it rained, it poured; and Gill was up to the task rejecting an early third period short-handed breakaway, as well as a late game flurry which included several point blank bullets, to preserve the one-goal decision.

After a scoreless first, the Royals got on the board first for the eighth time in nine games played. Reading turned up the pressure cooker on the team’s second power play chance of the night, creating several golden looks including a point blank rocket from Domenic Monardo that clanged the left pipe. Shortly after that, Monardo extended his personal goal streak to four straight when Stanislav Galiev slipped one from the left corner that hit Monardo’s skate and ricocheted between the legs of Wheeling goaltender Mike Condon (loss, 3-3-0-0, 27/29) for Monardo’s team leading fifth of the year.

Four minutes later—just five seconds into the Royals’ fourth power play chance of the night—Dustin Gazley won a face-off to the high slot, where defenseman Ryan Kavanagh fired a laser about two feet off the ice that Sean Wiles nicked, sending the puck on a downward trajectory that eluded Condon for Wiles’ third of the season—and what would prove to be his first game winner as a Royal.

Wheeling drew within one late in the second, when Colin Mulvey picked off a careless pass at the defensive blue line and marched in all alone on Gill, drilling a perfect shot low glove for his first as a pro. That goal seemed to energize the Nailers, who outshot the Royals 11 – 6 in the third period. But Gill and his teammates—and particularly the penalty killing crew, who knocked off three straight power play chances for the Nailers down the stretch—were up to task.

Reading is off until Friday (November 15 @ 7:30 pm), when the team will travel to Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to face the Kalamazoo Wings for the first time this season. Friday’s game night broadcast on CBS Sports Radio in Reading (1240 am and 98.5 fm) will kick off at 7:00 pm with the pre-game warm-up show presented by High Mark Blue Shield. Friday’s game, as with all Royals’ road games this season, will be televised locally in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on BCTV courtesy of Boscov’s Travel and Apple Vacations.

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