Royals Close Out Home Portion of Regular Season with 6-4 Win Over Norfolk

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Teams     Per: 1          2          3

NOR:              1          3          0=4

REA:              3          2          1=6

Records

NOR: 26-39-5-0=57 (7, South Division)

REA: 39-25-4-2=84 (3, North Division)

Goaltenders

NOR: Desrosiers (Loss, 13-13-0-2) (41/47)

REA: Dekanich (Win, 19-12-3-1) (32/36)

Power Play:

NOR: 0-2

REA: 2-4

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals (­­­­­­­­­Win, 39-25-4-2=84) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, defeated the Norfolk Admirals (Loss, 26-39-5-0=57), 6-4, at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania.

In the Royals’ final home game of the regular season, Reading scored first and built a three goal advantage before Norfolk bounced back with three goals in a span of 1:14 early in the second period to tie the game at four; but the Royals, playing for the first time under Head Coach Kirk MacDonald, took a time-out, regrouped and quickly bounced back to regain the lead and ultimately close out the team’s twentieth home win of the season. The goals came fast and furious in this one with the two teams combining for nine of the ten goals scored in a span 11:52 from late in the first until early in the second.

The win, which pushed the Royals record back to fourteen games over .500, jumped Reading into third place in the North Division with two more regular season games to go—both against the Admirals in Norfolk this weekend. The Royals clinched one of the four available playoff spots in the North Division last Sunday; but are now playing for home ice advantage in the first round of the post-season action.

Reading struck first on the team’s first power play chance of the game 14:08 into the first period when Ryan Penny carried deep down the right wing side into the offensive end and dished the puck back up into the mid-slot, where Mike Pereira stepped in, found a soft seam, and ripped a hot snapper that caught the interior side of the right pipe and ricocheted in for Pereira’s seventeenth of the year.

2:20 later, Pereira gave Reading a 2-0 lead with his second of the night on a similar play from a similar spot on the ice. This time the low-to-high pass came off the left side, when Justin Crandall slipped a perfect back-hand drop pass to Pereira, who this time went high blocker for his eighteenth of the year.

1:37 after that, Norfolk scored a bounce back goal when Scott Jacklin cut down the slot and received a pass out of the right corner from Michael Pontarelli. Jacklin got a clean snap shot from six feet off the top of the crease. Reading goaltender Mark Dekanich got a chunk of the puck with his blocker, but not enough to keep it out, as Jacklin bagged his eleventh of the year.

Twenty-eight seconds after that, Reading regained the two-goal advantage (3-1) when Robbie Czarnik ripped a rocket off the top of the right circle that buzzed across the body of goaltender Phillippe Desrosiers for Czarnik’s twenty-third of the year.

The Royals pushed the lead to three (4-1) 1:27 into the second period, when Michael Huntebrinker was met at the offensive blue line with a heavy hit, but as he was getting knocked to the ice, Huntebrinker was able to slip a lead-out pass down the slot to Ryan Penny, who skated onto the puck and laid down a beautiful back-hand to forehand move cutting right to left across the top of the crease and stuffing the puck home for his twenty-fourth of the year.

That goal only seemed to incite the Admirals, who promptly rang off three goals in a span of 1:14. The first came on a back-door bullet from deep in the right corner by Michael Tam at the 2:32 mark of the second. Twenty-four seconds later, Domenic Alberga led a two-on-one rush into Reading’s defensive zone. Alberga’s attempted to pass the puck through the middle of the ice where a sliding Reading defender—Todd Perry—inadvertently deflected the puck under Dekanich. And then fifty-seconds after that the Admirals completed the rrifecta when Joey Benik came blitzing down the gut and took a perfect pass from below the goal line from John Dunbar that Benik quickly ripped behind Dekanich to make it 4-4.

Reading’s coach, Kirk MacDonald, took his time-out at that point, and the Royals regrouped and within 2:14 re-took the lead for good, when Adam Brace set a drop pass on a tee for Olivier Labelle, who was cutting through the slot. Labelle blew a hard snap shot under and through Desrosiers for his team-leading twenty-sixth goal of the year—and what would prove to be his all-time career team leading twenty-third game winning goal.

The Royals’ Justin Crandall, who was celebrating his twenty-fifth birthday, bagged a power play goal on a sharp angle shot that he squirted through Desrosiers for his twenty-first of the year 2:54 into the third period to give Reading a little insurance, which the team made stand up in a sound and steady effort down the stretch.

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2017

@ Norfolk Admirals

The Scope Arena – Norfolk,VA (7:30 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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