ESTERO, Fla. – The action in the ECHL semifinal series between Reading Royals and Florida EverBlades shifted to Florida’s home ice tonight with the Reading Royals winning 2-1 before a crowd of 4,096. This game departed from the first two of the series as it was a defensive battle versus the high scoring play as in games one and two of the scheduled seven game series. The win gives the Royals a commanding 3-0 lead in the series. The Royals struck first, as they have in all three games of this series and for the sixth time in playoff action this year. The goal came from sheer hard work by Reading center Marc Cavosie. First, he dug the puck out of a scrum, and skated into the slot despite heavy defensive pressure. Somehow he got several partial shots off with a defenseman draped all over him. Finally, almost by force of will, Cavosie bounced his third shot off a Florida defender into the net. The puck trickled past Florida goal tender Chris Beckford-Tseu at 13:57 of the period. Gavin Morgan and Scott Langdon picked up assists on the score. Otherwise, it was an intense but quiet period as Florida went 0-2 on first period power plays and was scoreless on 11 shots. Reading failed to score on one power play opportunity and finished with eight first period shots on goal. The teams skated into the first intermission with Reading enjoying the 1-0 lead. Florida hammered Reading goal tender Matt Dalton with 14 shots in period two. The Royals threw even more shots at Beckford-Tseu as they pelted him 17 times. Included were a number of great chances at both ends of the ice. For example, both Alex Berry and Ryan Cruthers of Reading both rang iron on shots in the period. Meanwhile, Florida had a number of great opportunities. Forward Shea Guthrie with three shots in the period, used his speed to walk around the Royals’ defense at least twice, for great scoring chances but the Royals and Dalton hung on and still led 1-0 at the end of two periods. Cruthers hit the iron again early in period three, as Reading stepped up their pressure right off the initial third period faceoff. They held the territorial advantage throughout most of the first part of the period until Florida grabbed the momentum at 13:51 with a gorgeously executed goal. Dominic Osman, on the receiving end of a pass from Matthew Pistilli centered the puck from the left hand mid boards. His blistering centering pass was about a foot up the ice and Kevin Baker, a former ECHL MVP two seasons ago, cruising in the slot alone simply redirected the puck past Dalton. Bingo, the EverBlades had tied the game 1-1. The tie lasted just a little over three minutes, when Ryan Cruthers finally hit the back of the net instead of a post at 17:07 with the game winner. He got the score for Reading as he combined with Cavosie and Gregg Scott to fire the puck hard off the glove of Beckford-Tseu who took the loss. Both teams went zero for three on power plays as winning goal tender Dalton swept aside 36 of 37 shots while Beckford-Tseu handled 37 of 39 shots. Game four is scheduled for Tuesday night in Germain Arena in Estero, Florida. The puck drop scheduled for 7:30 PM. Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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