Royals Fall in Overtime (Again) to Brampton, 3-2

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Teams     Per: 1          2          3          OT

BRM:             1         1          0            1=3

REA:              0         1          1            0=2

Records

BRM: 14-18-5-3 = 37 (4th North Division)

REA: 18-16-4-3 = 43 (4th East Division)

Goaltenders

BRM: Ruby (WIN) 2-1-1-1 (33/35)

REA: Ouellette (OTL) 8-7-2-0 (30/33)

Power Play:

BRM: 2-6

REA: 1-3

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals (­­­­­­­­­OTL, 18-16-4-3=43) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, were defeated in overtime by the Brampton Beast (Win, 14-18-5-3=36) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Montreal Canadians, 3-2, at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania.

For the fourth time in four games between Reading and Brampton this season, the two teams battled to a tie through regulation time and needed overtime to bring things to a resolution—and for the third time, it was the Beast who claimed the two points. In a slightly different twist, it was the Royals who had to come back from a two-goal deficit to get to OT; but in an all too familiar scenario—at least for the Royals—the Beast capitalized on a power play chance in the overtime session to bring things to a close in the regular season finale between the two clubs.

Brampton struck on their first power play chance of the night 8:10 into the first period. Nineteen seconds into a boarding minor assessed against Yannick Tifu, Tim Bozon set one on a tee at the top of the left circle for Reggie Traccitto, who ripped a low one-time bullet that slipped under the left pad of goaltender Martin Ouellette for Traccitto’s seventh of the year.

In the second, Reading turned up the pressure cooker and—in a scene that has played out rather frequently at Santander Arena of late—goaltender Jordan Ruby and his Brampton teammates rejected the repeated the onslaught. And, to add insult to injury, the Beast turned the tables and built the lead to 2-0 with a goal 6:40 into the middle frame. Luc-Olivier Blain slipped a pass from below the goal line to a waiting Mike Vernace in the right circle. Vernace snapped a quick one-timer along the ice that appeared to be headed wide until Bozon re-directed it between the legs of Ouellette for his third of the season.

Reading finally broke through on the team’s third power play chance of the night. Yannick Tifu, playing in his 498th ECHL game of his career, took a pass from Cam Reid at the right point. Tifu fired a snap shot that was buzzing about two feet off the ice towards the Brampton net. The puck struck a Brampton defender and deflected up under the bar on the short-side for Tifu’s eighth of the year—and his 196th point as a Royal (73g-123a), as well as his 517th point in the ECHL (169g-348a), which is twenty-sixth on the league’s all-time scoring list.

Reading tied the game 3:24 into the third period, when Robbie Czarnik got a point blank look from between the hash marks. Ruby fought that shot off, but the puck fell to his right, where Pavel Padakin was planted for a relatively easy punch-home and his fifth of the year.

The two teams played scoreless hockey down the stretch through the remainder of regulation time, despite several power play chances for the Beast in the waning moments. Although Brampton was unable to capitalize on those late game PP opportunities, they wouldn’t waste the one they got in overtime. Three seconds into the extra frame, Scott Tanski was hit with a slashing minor directly off the face-off to start the OT session. The Royals penalty killers rejected several early bids in the power play sequence, but the PK couldn’t prevent a hot rocket by Travis Brown from the right point that buzzed through a swarm of bodies and into the Royals’ net 1:46 into the extra frame to bring things to an abrupt end.

The Royals next head out on the road for six of the next seven including three this week, starting on Wednesday (@ 7:05 pm) at First Arena in Elmira, New York, where Reading will face the Elmira Jackals for the tenth time this season. Wednesday’s game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Radio 1240 am and 98.5 am in Reading beginning with the pre-game warm-up show presented by Highmark Blue Shield at 6:35 pm. As with all Royals road games this season, Wednesday’s game will also be televised locally in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on BCTV courtesy of Boscov’s Travel and Apple Vacations. Streaming audio is available free of charge on the Royals’ website; and 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.

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