Royals Battle Back to Bag a Point in Brampton, 7-6 in Overtime

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Teams     Per: 1          2          3          ot

REA:              2          3          1          0=6

BRM:             4          1          1          1=7

Records

REA: 34-21-2-2=72 (3, North Division)

BRM: 33-18-3-4=73 (t-1 North Division)

Goaltenders

REA: Dekanich (OTL) (17-10-2-1) (33/40)

BRM: Fucale (Win, 23-9-1-2) (32/38)

Power Play:

REA: 0-3

BRM: 1-1

Brampton, ON – The Reading Royals (­­­­­­­­­OTL, 34-21-2-2=72) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, were defeated by the Brampton Beast (win, 33-18-3-4=73), 7-6, in overtime at Powerade Centre in Brampton, Ontario.

In the first matchup of the regular season between the Royals and Beast, Brampton threw an early heavy punch, but Reading got off the mat—twice—coming back from a pair of three goal deficits to ultimately force overtime where Brampton’s David Vallorani—a member of the Royals’ 2013 Kelly Cup Championship team—capped four-point night (2g-2a) with the OT game winner thirty-nine seconds into the extra frame.

The win by Brampton jumped the Beast into a tie for first in the North Division with the Manchester Monarchs, while the Royals, who have played in five straight one-goal decisions, are one point back and within striking distance of the top slot in the North.

The Beast stormed out of the gates, jumping out to their first three goal advantage, by hitting for the trifecta—which included a short-handed goal by Brandon MacLean—within a span of 4:38 in the first half of the first period. Matt Willows cut the lead to two with a breakaway goal 13:35 into the first. Vallorani answered that with his first of the night with just 1:48 left in the opening period to re-take the three goal lead at 4-1. However, before time ran out on the first period, Olivier Labelle bagged the first of what would be two (2g-1a, +4) when he finished a give-and-go with Willows with just 56.8 left to cut Brampton’s lead back to 4-2.

Reading drew to within one 2:38 into the second period when Willows notched his second of the night—and nineteenth of the year—with a hot snapper from low on the left side of the slot. But a power play goal by Brampton on their lone chance with the man advantage—on a snapper from the mid-slot by Jordan Henry—14:45 into the second regained the two goal advantage at 5-3.

Undaunted, Reading bagged two of their own in the latter stages of the second—the first on a high deflection by Labelle on a shot from the right point by Nick Luukko at 16:23 made it 5-4; and the second, after an epic battle in front of the Brampton net, which was ultimately won by Johnny McInnis, tied the game at five with just 5.6 remaining in the middle frame.

That tie lasted less than thirty seconds as Luke Pither notched his second of the game on a hot one-time rocket out of the right circle just 24 seconds into the third. But Reading would battle back one more time to tie the game at six 5:18 into the final frame when Ryan Penny cleaned up a multi-shot rebound chance for Mike Pereira for Penny’s team-leading twenty-second of the year.

The two teams traded chances from there, but the two goaltenders, Mark Dekanich for Reading and Zach Fucale for Brampton, kept things knotted up until 39 seconds into OT when Vallorani picked up a loose puck in his defensive zone and won a long foot race into Reading’s end where he got Dekanich to open up for the deft five-hole tap in.

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

FRIDAY, March 10, 2017

@ Brampton Beast

PowerAde Centre – Brampton, ON (7:15 pm)

ROYALS BROADCAST

AUDIO: iHeartRadio – Rumba 1340 in Reading

Deibler Dental In Arena Broadcast: 99.3 fm Inside Santander Arena

TELEVISION: Royals’ Road Games are televised locally in Berks County, Pennsylvania

on BCTV, which Can Found at Comcast Reading Cable Channel 15,

Service Electric Cable Channel 19, Comcast Southern Berks Channel 965

Courtesy of Boscov’s Travel and Apple Vacations

STREAMING VIDEO: ECHL.TV powered by NeuLion (Pay-Per-View)

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