Royals Win Second Consecutive in Kalamazoo, 3-1

Teams    Per: 1          2          3

REA:             2          0          1= 3

KAL:             0          1          0= 1 

Records

REA:  5-5-0-0=10 (t- 5th East Division)

KAL: 6-4-1-1=14 (3rd North Division)

Goaltenders

REA: Ouellette (Win) (2-3-0-0) (29/30)

KAL:  Martin (Loss) (5-3-1-1) (28/31)

Power Play:

REA: 0-4

KAL: 0-4

Kalamazoo, MI – The Reading Royals (­­­­­­­­­win, 5-5-0-0=10) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League, defeated the Kalamazoo Wings  (loss, 6-4-1-1=14), 3-1, at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Reading came out of gates storming, generating eighteen first period shots and building a 2-0 advantage before the K-Wings regrouped and put the Royals back on their collective heels for large chunks of the last two periods. But Reading was able to make the early lead stand up by virtue of a relatively solid commitment to the defensive side of the puck, a few fortunate bounces, a couple of big penalty kills and more than a couple big saves from young goaltender Martin Ouellette, who made twenty-nine saves to record his second win as a pro.

First Period (2-0, Reading)

10:32 (1-0, Reading) Reading Goal

Reid (4); Marshall (snap shot from below the hashmarks in the low slot)

Reading broke through after a multi-player puck battle on the end wall concluded with the puck sliding directly in front of the Kalamazoo net where the only player in the area was Reading forward, Cam Reid, who snapped off a hard high shot. Goaltender Joel Martin got a chunk of the puck with his blocker but not enough to keep it out, as Reid continued what for him is a nine game point streak.

18:37 (2-0, Reading) Reading Goal

Marshall (5); Hughesman (breakaway finish with a tight shot that trickled across goal line)

As a result of a relentless, pressure pounding effort in the first period, the Royals built the lead to 2-0 when Adam Hughesman sprang David Marshall on a breakaway into the Kalamazoo zone. Marshall carried the puck tight to the top of the crease, where he forced the puck through Martin for his team leading fifth of the season.

Second Period (2-1, Reading)

14:20 (2-1, Reading) Kalamazoo Goal

Caria (3); Taylor (snap shot from interior portion of left circle)

Kalamazoo cut Reading’s lead in half with a quick snapper directly off a face-off in the Royals’ end. As the two centers tied each other up on the face-off, the puck slid to the interior portion of the circle, where Matt Caria, who had set up on the interior hashmark, took possession and snapped a water-bottle blaster high blocker on Ouellette for his third of the year.

Third Period (3-1, Reading)

17:51 (3-1, Reading) Reading Goal

Cruthers(2); Davies and Higgs (snap shot from high slot)

The Royals put the K-Wings’ withering third period attack to sleep with a late period goal by Ryan Cruthers, who carried into the offensive zone and snapped a hard shot from the high slot that appeared to get nicked by the stick of the K-Wings’ defender covering him right into the upper right corner of the net.

NOTES:

• The scratches for the Royals tonight were: Dan Ford (d) (healthy), Maxim Lamarche (d) (injury), Matt Hatch (f) (injury – placed on ECHL Reserve List), and Justin Daniels (f) (healthy – activated from ECHL Reserve List).

• Kalamazoo played tonight’s game with only fourteen skaters (two short of the allowable number).

• Cam Reid scored the team’s first goal of the game—his fourth of the season—to extend his personal point streak to nine games (4g-7a=11pts).

• David Marshall extended his personal goal scoring streak to three games (4g). Marshall has also had three consecutive multi-point performances.

• Ryan Cruthers’ goal was his second of the season, and his seventy-third career goal, tying Olivier Labelle as the all-time team career leader in that category. This was Cruthers’ 222nd game as a Royal.

• The Royals penalty killers were a perfect 6-6 in the back-to-back games played against the K-Wings.

End 14 11-15