READING, PA – The Reading Royals (16-11-1-1, 34 points) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, defeated the Elmira Jackals (6-16-5-0,17 points) 5-0 at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania Wednesday night.
In the team’s first game back after a four-day holiday break, the Royals struck first, added a pair in the second and two more in the third, while keeping Jackals to a season-low sixteen shots, each of which was rejected by goaltender Drew Fielding, who registered the team’s first shutout of the season in only his second start for Reading.
Both teams had ample opportunity in the early going, as Elmira was awarded 37 seconds of five-on-three, while the Royals had an extended sequence of power play of their own, which included 56 seconds of a two-skater advantage. However, neither power play could find pay-dirt, and, in fact, the best chance on Reading’s time with the man advantage came on a short-handed breakaway for Elmira’s Mark Bennett which was rejected by Fielding.
The Royals finally broke through 16:38 into the first when Justin Crandall slipped a perfect lead-out pass down the right wing side for the hard-charging Chris McCarthy, who skated onto the puck carried deep into the offensive zone and slid it back to the middle of the ice, where a hard-charging Olivier Labelle came barreling down the middle for a beautiful redirect up and over goaltender Jason Kasdorf and his twelfth goal of the year—and what would prove to be his all-time team-leading twentieth career game winner as a Royal.
The Royals stretched the lead to two 7:51 into the second period when Ian Watters chipped the puck from the defensive zone, allowing Crandall to skate onto the puck and take off on the races to the Elmira end. Crandall elected to rip a rocket from thirty-five feet and Kasdorf made the upper body save, but the rebound ricocheted right back up the middle where Ryan Penny stepped in and drilled one of his own that went off the body of Kasdorf and into the net for Penny’s seventh of the year.
Forty-five seconds later, Robbie Czarnik set one on tee at the top of the right circle for defenseman Florian Iberer who uncorked a hot rivet that blew by Kasdorf for his sixth of the year
In the third, the Royals tacked on two more—both by Czarnik. The first came 4:31 into the period when he fought off a tight check in the mid-slot and snapped the puck stick-side on Kasdorf for his seventh of the year. Czarnik bagged number eight on a breakaway at the other end of the period. His twenty-foot snapper hit the left pipe, the cross-bar, and the right-pipe—going completely ‘around the horn’ before ending up in the net with just 3:27 remaining in the game
From that point forward, the Royals’ focus was on preserving the shutout for Fielding, who has now stopped fifty-nine of the sixty-one shots he’s faced over the last two-plus games that he has played for Reading.
The Royals return to the ice at Santander Arena on Friday, December 30th when the Wheeling Nailers visit Reading for a 7 p.m. puck drop.
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