Royals Throttled by Road Warriors, 8-3

Teams     Per: 1          2          3

GRN:              2          5          1= 8 

REA:              0          1          2= 3

Records

GRN: 11-9-0-0=22 (4th East Division)

REA:  9-6-1-1=20 (5th East Division)

Goaltenders

GRN:  Malcolm (Win) 9-4-0-0 (26/29)

REA: Knapp (Loss) 5-3-0-0 (16/23) (40:00); and Dundovich (no decision) (6/7) (20:00)

Power Play:

GRN: 0-4

REA: 1-2

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals (­­­­­­­­­loss, 9-5-1-1=20) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League, were defeated by the Greenville Road Warriors (win, 11-9-0-0=22), 8-3, at Santander Arena in Reading, PA.

In the second game in two days between the Royals and Road Warriors, Saturday’s re-match had a pronounced case of role reversal from Reading’s 5-2 win on Friday, as Greenville scored first and blew things wide open with a five goal explosion in a span of 7:10 in the second period. During the wild scoring spree, virtually every shot taken by the Road Warriors ended up in the Royals’ net. In short, there wasn’t a tourniquet big enough to stop the bleeding in this one, as the Royals eight game unbeaten streak came to an abrupt end, and the team’s bid to take sole possession of the fourth and final playoff spot in the East Division of the ECHL’s Eastern Conference was obliterated by an aggressive, assertive and effective Road Warrior attack that built a lead as big as seven goals at one point.

First Period (2-0, Greenville)

5:38 (1-0, Greenville) Greenville Goal

O’Donnell (1); Hegerty and Rodrigues (rebound put back from right side of crease)

Greenville stormed the Royals right off the hop, refusing to provide any breathing space whatsoever and putting Reading firmly back on the team’s collective heels. The Road Warriors effort paid off 5:38 into the game when defenseman Ryan Hegerty fired a hard shot from the right point that point appeared deflected on the way in by forward Shawn O’Donnell. Reading goaltender Connor Knapp flared his left leg to make a toe save. However, the rebound fell to the right side of the crease where O’Donnell corralled the puck and stuffed it in for his first of the season.

8:30 (2-0, Greenville) Greenville Goal

O’Donnell 2 (2); Escobedo (slap shot from wide right hash mark on right circle)

Greenville stretched the lead to two 1:52 later when O’Donnell carried down the wide right wing side deep into the Royals’ defensive zone. As he arrived at the hashmarks on the outside of the right circle, he fired a hard shot that buzzed across the body of Knapp and caught the top half of the net for O’Donnell’s second of the game and season.

Second Period (7-1, Greenville)

1:22 (3-0, Greenville) Greenville Goal

Parkes (2); Saponari and Hegerty (breakaway snap shot from mid-slot glove side)

The second period onslaught started early on. The Royals opened things up after the face-off to open the second frame, but that strategy back-fired hot on the heels of a quality scoring chance for Reading. A hard shot from the high slot, hit Royal forward Adam Hughesman in front of the Greenville net and turned into a breakaway chance for the Road Warriors. Defenseman Ryan Hegerty took control, hit Vinny Saponari with a quick pass, and Saponari sprang Trevor Parkes through the neutral zone. Parkes blitzed by everyone, carried to the mid-slot and drilled a snapper over the glove hand of Knapp for his second of the year.

2:13 (3-1, Greenville) Reading Goal

Alderson (1); Johnston (hard snap shot from wide hashmarks on the right circle)

Fifty-one seconds later, Reading broke through with a shot that was somewhat similar to the one on which Greenville scored their second goal. Only on this one, it was Brandon Alderson, playing in his second game as a Royal, who carried deep down the wide right wing side and fired a bullet that beat Greenville goaltender Jeff Malcolm under the bar on the short side for his first as a Royal.

3:13 (4-1, Greenville) Greenville Goal

Rodrigues (3); O’Donnell (breakaway snap shot from low slot high blocker)

It only took a minute for Greenville to answer the Royals’ goal. On this one, it was Paul Rodrigues who got free down the slot and fired a hard snapper stick side on Knapp for his third of the year.

5:45 (5-1, Greenville) Greenville Goal

Saponari (7); McCarthy and Hegerty (snap shot out of the right circle)

Greenville stretched the lead to four by scoring on their next shot, as well. That bid came out of the right circle when Vinny Saponari took a clean feed from Chris McCarthy and rocketed a blast across the body of Knapp for his seventh of the year.

6:55 (6-1, Greenville) Greenville Goal

Brown (3); Rodrigues (shot from deep on the left wing side across to the far side of the net)

Things started bordering on the ridiculous 1:10 later when Greenville hit pay-dirt on their next shot, again—a snapper by Tyler Brown from deep on the left wing side that buzzed across the body of Knapp and stuck in the upper portion of the net.

8:32 (7-1, Greenville) Greenville Goal

Brown 2 (4); O’Donnell and Rodrigues (shot from right slot)

Tyler Brown, who played plust-5 (+5) in the game, wasn’t done for the night. In fact, he buried his next shot—a wide open look from the right side of the mid-slot, which added quite an exclamation point to Greenville’s dominance in the first half of the game.

Third Period (8-3, Greenville)

0:48 (8-1, Greenville) Greenville Goal

Parkes (3); Saponari and Humphries (two-on-one break with a tap in weak side finish)

Reading changed goaltenders at the start of the third period of play as the netminding duties were taken over by Pete Dundovich, who started the game as an Emergency Back-Up Goaltender but was signed to an ECHL Standard Player’s Contract in between the second and third periods. Dundovich got a rude welcome to the ECHL when the Road Warriors immediately created a two-on-one rush with Vinny Saponari sliding a perfect diagonal down pass through the mid slot to a hard-charging Trevor Parkes who angled the puck behind Dundovich just as he ran him over and into the net.

4:56 (8-2, Greenville) Reading Goal

Mullane (7); Marshall and Reid (hard snap shot from left circle low glove)

Reading didn’t go quietly into the night despite the considerable lead built by the Road Warriors to this point. David Marshall found Pat Mullane sniping in the low left circle. Mullane wasted no time firing a hot bullet that beat Malcolm low to the glove side for his seventh of the season.

8:41 (8-3, Greenville) Reading Goal (Power Play)

Comrie (6); Marcou and Coetzee (hard one-time rocket from right circle)

The Royals struck on the team’s second power play opportunity of the game, as well, when Mike Marcou set one on a tee in the right circle for Adam Comrie, who uncorked a bomb for his sixth of the year—five of which have been scored while the Royals were playing with the man advantage.

NOTES:

• The scratches for the Royals tonight were: Jordan Heywood (d) (healthy), Kevin Walrod (f) (healthy) (ECHL Reserve), Ryan Cruthers (f) (healthy), and Ian Watters (f) (healthy) (ECHL Reserve).

• This marked the tenth time in team history (in 953 regular season games) that the Royals have allowed eight or more goals in a single game.

• The Road Warriors five goal second period marked only the eleventh time in team history that the Royals have given up five or more goals in a single period.

• Brandon Alderson scored his first goal as a Royal tonight. He has registered a point in both of the games that he has played for Reading so far (1g-1a). Willie Coetzee has also recorded at least one point in both games he has played for Reading after picking up an assist on Adam Comrie’s power play goal tonight.

• Adam Comrie scored his sixth goal of the year tonight, which leads all defensemen in the ECHL. His five power play goals also leads d-men in the league in that category.

• Pat Mullane scored his seventh goal of the year, tying Cam Reid and David Marshall for the team lead. Mullane has scored his seven goals on just 36 shots, which translates into a team leading 19.4% scoring ratio.

• Reading has scored at least one power play goal in five of the last six games and in twelve of the seventeen games the team has played so far.

• The Royals blanked the Greenville power play tonight (4-4), marking the eighth time in the last nine games that Reading has held the opposition’s PP off the board. Reading’s PK has killed 29 of the last 30 chances with the man advantage for the opposition, which translates into a 96.7% kill ratio over that span.

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

Reading Royals v Toledo Walleye

@ Santander Arena – Reading, PA

Thursday, December 4, 2014 (7:30 pm)

NEXT UP: The Royals face the Toledo Walleye on Thursday (7:30 pm) at Santander Arena in Reading. Thursday’s game we’ll celebrate College Night with special prices on select draft beer. It is also a Steak-umm Meal and Ticket Deal night when $25.00 will get you a Purple Zone ticket, a hamburger, large fries and soda. Please note that Thursday’s game night broadcast will be an internet only broadcast (coverage on CBS SportsRadio 1240 am and 98.5 fm will be pre-empted by Thursday Night Football presented by Westwood One). The internet broadcast will start with the pre-game warm-up show presented by Highmark Blue Shield at 7:00 pm. The streaming internet audio is available free of charge on the Royals’ website (follow the ‘headset’ icon). Streaming video is available on a pay-per-view basis through ECHL.TV.

For more information about the Royals, call 610-898-7825 or log onto www.royalshockey.com.

End 14 11-29