Royals clip Admirals, pull into second place tie

READING, PA – The Reading Royals (34-21-1-2, 71 points) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, defeated the Norfolk Admirals (21-32-4-0, 46 points) 2-1 at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania on Sunday.

In the fifth matchup of the year between the Royals and Admirals, Reading goaltender Mark Dekanich pushed his personal win streak to five straight by making a number of spectacular saves to hold the opposition to just one goal against for the second consecutive night. In this one, the third contest of the year between Reading and Norfolk that has been decided by a 2-1 score, it was the Admirals who had the better of the early offensive opportunities but it was the Royals who scored first on Norfolk’s first power play chance of the game. After building a 2-0 lead on a late second period goal by Matt Willows, the Royals and Dekanich held off the Admirals third period push with a safe and sound playoff-style final frame.

The Royals’ win, when coupled with Sunday’s loss for the Brampton Beast, served to push the Royals into a tie for second place in the North Division with fourteen regular season games to go.

Reading bagged the team’s tenth short-handed goal of the season to start the scoring with just 59 seconds left in the first period. Matt Wilkins picked off the puck in the neutral zone, powered his way into the offensive end, and despite being well-covered fired a long-range snap shot that appeared to deflect off the stick of an Admiral defender and elude goaltender Brandon Anderson for Wilkins’ tenth of the year and first short handed goal as a pro.

The Royals built the lead to 2-0 and got what proved to be the game winner with 2:50 left in the second period. Shortly after Maxim Lamarche thwarted a quality scoring chance for the Admirals, Ryan Penny slipped the puck up into the neutral zone, where Matt Willows skated onto the loose puck and blew behind a Norfolk defender, carrying in on Anderson where he laid down a perfect forehand-backhand stuff from in tight to record his seventeenth of the year and what would prove to be his second game winning goal as a Royal.

Norfolk spoiled Dekanich’s bid for a shutout with 7:10 remaining in the third, while playing with the man advantage for the third time in the game. Ben Murphy corralled a rebound of a shot from the right point by Michael Tam and was able to stuff it through Dekanich for his fourteenth of the year.

That would be it for both teams as the Royals sealed the team’s eighteenth home win of the year (18-12-0-0) by making a number of smart hockey decisions with the puck down the stretch and up to the final buzzer.

The Royals return to play on Thursday, March 9th when they travel to Brampton, Ontario to take on the Beast at the Powerade Centreat 7:15 p.m.