Royals Jump Into First Place with 6-2 Win in Brampton

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Teams     Per: 1          2          3

REA:              2          2          2=6

BRM:             0          1          1=2

Records

REA: 35-21-2-2=74 (1, North Division)

BRM: 33-19-3-4=73 (t-2 North Division)

Goaltenders

REA: Ouellette (Win) (13-11-0-1) (34/36)

BRM: Fucale (Loss) (23-10-1-2) (33/38) (1 eng)

Power Play:

REA: 1-6

BRM: 0-6

Brampton, ON – The Reading Royals (­­­­­­­­­win, 35-21-2-2=74) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, defeated the Brampton Beast (loss, 33-19-3-4=73), 6-2, in overtime at Powerade Centre in Brampton, Ontario.

In the Royals’ final game of the regular season in Canada, Reading struck first within the first minute and pulled away with a pair of short-handed goals in the second to claim team’s thirty-fifth win of the year and jump over the Beast (and Manchester Monarchs) into first place in the North Division. The win pushed the Royals’ historical record to 4-0-3-0 in Brampton over the past three seasons.

Reading started things off 38 seconds into the first when Justin Danforth, Matt Willows, and Olivier Labelle established an early aggressive forecheck. The puck slipped up the left wing wall, where it appeared that Brampton would be able to clear the zone; however, Danforth stayed with the forecheck, took a heavy hit, dug the puck off the wall, and slipped it back to the low slow, where Labelle settled and drilled it between the legs of goaltender Zach Fucale for his twenty-second of the year.

The Royals took a 2-0 lead on the team’s first power place chance of the game when Mike Pereira dished a pass from deep on the right corner behind the Brampton net to a waiting Willows in the left corner. Willows settled and slipped a pass to the top of the crease where Labelle, who was cutting across the low slot, redirected it home for his second of the night and team-leading twenty-third of the year.

The Beast cut the lead to 2-1 forty-three seconds into the second—twelve seconds after the conclusion of their first power play chance—when Connor Crisp tried to jam the puck in at the right pipe. Goaltender Martin Ouellette rejected that bid, but Crisp corralled the rebound and turned and wheeled a bar-down snap shot for his tenth of the year.

Reading then stretched the lead back to three (4-1) with back-to-back shorthanded goals. The first came at 8:48 when Brampton’s Jordan Henry broke his stick on an attempted one-timer in the high slot, allowing Robbie Czarnik to steal and take off on a long breakaway at the conclusion of which he buried a snap shot over Fucale’s blocker for his twentieth of the year.

14:46 into the second, Justin Danforth, who was playing in his second game as a pro, bagged his first pro goal—highlight reel style—when he danced his way into the offensive zone, chipped a lead-out pass to himself into the mid-slot, skated onto the loose puck and then laid-down a beautiful forehand-backhand chip.

The Beast pulled back within two 3:38 into the third, when Henry found himself free for a hard slap shot from the mid-slot that buzzed over the right pad of Ouellette for his eleventh of the year.

However, the Royals restored the three goal advantage 14:46 into the final frame on a perfectly executed rush into the offensive zone, when Matt Willows carried hard down the right wing side, sent a saucer to the middle of the ice where Mike Pereira redirected the puck to Robbie Czarnik who was charging down the left side. Czarnik ripped a bullet across the body of Fucale for his second of game and twenty-first of the year.

The Beast pulled out the stops down the stretch; but were unable to capitalize, while Reading tacked on a third short-handed goal—into an empty net—when Derik Johnson slipped his sixth of the season into the open cage with 31.4 second left.

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

SATURDAY, March 11, 2017

@ Elmira Jackals

First Arena – Elmira, NY (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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