WORCESTER,MA – The Reading Royals, proud affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, defeated the Worcester Railers, 6-3, Friday, January 14th at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. Royals goaltender Kirill Ustimenko saved 28 of 31 shots, while Railers goalie Ken Appleby saved 28 of 34. 
Halfway into the opening period, the Royals struck first. Anthony Gagnon and Jacob Pritchard connected with a set of passes in the neutral zone before Gagnon burst into the Railers’ zone with the puck and beat Appleby high blocker side. The Railers controlled puck possession for much of the final minutes of the period in the Royals’ zone, leading to the tying strike from Charlie Spetz. Positioned at the blue line, Spetz wound up and fired a slapshot through traffic and past the screened Ustimenko in net, lighting the lamp with 2:18 remaining in the first period.
In the second period, the flood gates opened for both teams’ offenses. Worcester opened the middle period scoring after Cole Coskey was awarded a penalty shot. Coskey beat Ustimenko with a forehand dangle and snipe over the Royals netminder’s glove to provide Worcester its first and only lead of the night. The Royals came back with a pair of goals off the sticks of Brad Morrison and Kenny Hausinger in a span of four minutes to retake the lead, 3-2.
Nine minutes and 56 seconds into the third period, Reading stretched out its lead for good. Ebbing received a cross-ice pass in the slot from Morrison and beat Appleby on a one-timer to tally his second goal of the game, the fourth multi-goal game of his ECHL career.
Brayden Low sealed the game with an empty net goal in the final seconds of the Friday night matchup, his second goal in as many games.
The Royals stay in Worcester to take on the Railers in back-to-back faceoffs on Saturday, January 15th at 7:05 p.m. at the DCU Center.
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