ESTERO, Fla. – The Reading Royals swept the highly favored Florida EverBlades in four straight games with a 2-1 win tonight on the ‘Blades home ice at Germain Arena. A disappointed crowd of 3,028 watched Florida fail to meet their own stated expectations for a Kelly Cup appearance. The four-game sweep is the Royals first playoff series sweep in their history. The win in the semifinals puts them in the American Conference Finals. The conference winner moves on to play for the Kelly Cup. Florida lost in the conference semifinals for the second straight year despite being a heavy favorite. Last year after the EverBlades posted the best regular season record in the ECHL, the South Carolina Stingrays ousted the ‘Blades in their conference semi-final match-up. The teams played a scoreless first period, with the Royals outshooting the EverBlades 9-6. Reading had the lone power play of the opening stanza, but failed to connect and didn’t create any strong opportunities with the man advantage. This was their only power play of the game. Florida goal tender Chris Bedford-Tseu made his most difficult save with time running out the in the period. The stop in the last 30 seconds of the period on a tough shot by Reading forward Daniel Steiner was a gem. It came as Steiner moved in, alone on the ‘Blades goalie, but Beckford-Tseu had the answer. The save kept the 0-0 tie intact as the teams went into the first intermission. Matt Dalton in goal for the Royals handled the six shots he faced without major difficulty in period one. The teams continued to play tight defense and traded several even handed opportunities until the EverBlades picked up their first and only power play opportunity of the game at 9:58 in period two. Royals’ forward Alex Berry tripped up a Florida player and heard the whistle of referee Jarrod Ragusin. Florida came into this power play opportunity having scored on six of ten man advantages in the series. They were not successful this time. Both teams continued to hammer the goaltenders, but skated off, tied 0-0 when the horn sounded to signal the end of 40 minutes of play. Both Dalton and Bedford-Tseu made several great saves to preserve the 0-0 tie. Dalton turned aside 13 shots on goal, while Bedford-Tseu blocked 11 shots in a well played period. Ryan Cruthers finally broke the tie, early in period three, to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. Olivier Labelle started the play by hard work along the boards. He freed up the puck getting it down low to Ben Gordon who found Cruthers in the slot for a one timer past Beckford-Tseu. The goal at 1:32, was Cruthers sixth goal of the playoffs. Florida didn’t take long to respond. The goal came on a faceoff, as the center drew the puck back to defenseman Scott Hotham, who fed it to Milan Gajic, for a shot from the top of the circle. His shot went wide but created a rebound off the end boards that Mike Bayrack buried at 6:02 to forge a 1-1 tie. Four minutes later, the Royals grabbed their second lead, when Labelle jammed up center ice and kept the play alive as Florida was trying to come out of their defensive zone. Labelle got it up the side boards to Ben Gordon, who cut to the middle and wristed a shot off the shoulder of Beckford-Tseu. The puck bounced up and over him and into the back of the net for a 2-1 Reading lead at 11:01 of the third period. Both teams continued to press, but without success, as the clock ticked away. ‘Blades Coach Malcolm Cameron used his timeout with 57 seconds left in regulation, with a faceoff in Florida’s defensive zone. An apparent set play, got the puck into the neutral zone to Gajic on a fly pattern. Despite his head start around the Royals’ defense, one the defensemen caught up with Gajic to stop the breakaway, while avoiding a penalty. Each team ended with 30 shots on goal, as Dalton outdueled Beckford-Tseu in a game where both played well enough to win. Florida was finally able to pull their goal tender for a sixth attacker, with 20 seconds left in the game, but could not score or avoid being swept out of the playoffs. Reading now awaits the winner of the Cincinnati versus Charlotte semifinal series to join them in the conference finals. Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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