Royals Claim Twentieth Road Victory of the Year with OT Win in Norfolk, 4-3

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Teams     Per: 1          2          3          OT

REA:              1          2          0          1=4

NOR:              1          1          1          0=3

Records

REA: 40-25-4-2=86 (t-2, North Division)

NOR: 26-39-6-0=58 (7, South Division)

Goaltenders

REA: Dekanich (Win, 20-12-3-1) (46/49) (61:48)

NOR: Kilar (OTL, 2-0-2-0) (24/38)

Power Play:

REA: 0-2

NOR: 2-5

Norfolk, VA – The Reading Royals (­­­­­­­­­Win, 40-25-4-2=86) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, defeated the Norfolk Admirals (OTL, 26-39-6-0=58), 4-3, at The Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.

In the second to last game of the regular season, Reading won a see-saw battle with the Norfolk Admirals in overtime to claim the team’s fortieth win of the year—twenty of which have come on the road—and jump into second place in the North Division. Reading scored first and last (the second overtime game winner of the season for Steven Swavely); but in between had to battle back from a 2-1 deficit to claim the two points. The win pushed Reading’s record to a season best fifteen games over .500 for the second time this season. This marked the seventh consecutive year that the Royals have won twenty or more out on the road.

The Royals, who clinched one of the four available playoff spots in the North Division last Sunday in Wheeling, West Virginia, still won’t know the team’s relative playoff positioning in the North  until tomorrow night—when the team will face the Admirals in the final game of the regular season. Reading could still end up anywhere from second to fourth and play the Adirondack Thunder, Brampton Beast or Manchester Monarchs in the first round of the playoffs.

Reading struck 5:20 into the game when Robbie Czarnik landed a perfect lead-out saucer to the hard-charging Mike Pereira, who skated onto the seeing-eye pass and busted behind the Norfolk defense where he laid down a perfect forehand-backhand five-hole stuff and his nineteenth of the year.

Norfolk tied the game at one with seven seconds left in their second power play chance of the night shortly after goaltender Brett Kilar thwarted a golden short-handed scoring chance for the Royals. At the other end of the ice, a fortuitous bounce for the Admirals saw the puck land to the stick of Scott Jacklin who was wide open in the low slot. Jacklin took a backhand that got a fortuitous bounce of its own—off the stick of a Reading defender, causing the puck to flutter over the left shoulder of goaltender Mark Dekanich and into the net for Jacklin’s twelfth of the year.

The Admirals took what would be their only lead of the game at 2-1 4:49 into the second period on another fortuitous bounce off a Reading stick. Two failed clears by the Royals sent the defense into scramble mode, and Michael Pontarelli, who would pick up three points on the night, took what appeared to be a shot out of the left circle towards the Royals’ net that would have been easily handled by Dekanich had it not hit the blade of the stick of a Reading defender and gone straight to Ben Murphy, who was wide open and all alone at the right side of the crease for an easy slam dunk.

Reading re-tied the game at two 8:09 into the second when Justin Crandall walked the goal-line on the left side of the Norfolk net, got to the top of the crease on the left side, and ripped a bar-down bullet from in tight into the upper right side of the net for his twenty-second of the season.

The Royals regained the lead 14:13 into the middle frame when Ryan Penny skated onto a loose puck in the neutral zone, carried deep into the right circle and uncorked a rocket that whizzed across the body and under the blocker of Kilar for Penny’s twenty-fifth of the year.

In the third, the Admirals pounded the pressure firing sixteen of their forty-nine shots and, but for some spectacular goaltending from Reading’s Mark Dekanich, things could have gotten ugly. Norfolk did tie things 10:21 into the final frame on their fourth power play of the night, when Tommy Giroux ripped one off the top of the right circle that went wide of the net on the right and came out on the other side where Pontarelli stepped up for a quick snapper that got by Dekanich before he could come across to make the save.

Last Friday, it was the Admirals who got the overtime game winner in Reading, and tonight it was the Royals who returned the favor in Norfolk. Steven Swavely charging down the right wing side ripped a blast that was a carbon copy of the one taken by Penny earlier in the game and that once again buzzed across the body and under the blocker of Kilar for Swavely’s seventeenth of the season and second OT GWG of the year.

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 2017

@ Norfolk Admirals

The Scope Arena – Norfolk, VA (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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