Reading, PA – Darn. K-Wings held off Reading for a 4-3 win on Throwback Thursday Night. Tag Bertuzzi netted two in his Royals debut. Bertuzzi was acquired via trade with Tulsa in exchange for Alec Butcher. Parker Gahagen made his Reading debut as well, he is contracted by the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL. Gahagen stopped 24 pucks in his debut loss to Kalamazoo.
Royals had the upper hand after one, despite being outplayed. Tag Bertuzzi opened the scoring with his first as a Royal, he tipped the goal in at 10:26. Exactly 20 seconds later, David Keefer knotted things up, his third of the season at 10:56. Brendan Hoffman got the monkey off his back, a one-timer on the break for his first of the season at 17:10. A solid start in net for Gahagen he made 16 saves on 17 Kalamazoo shots.
In an almost identically flipped period, the Royals controlled the pace of play in the frame but were outscored. Josh Passolt tied things up with his fourth of the season on a weird redirect at 5:44. Josh Passolt again found twine this time on a short-handed breakaway to put Kalamazoo up one at 11:57. Tag Bertuzzi tied things back up, wristing home a shot past a sprawled out Lemieux at 14:06. Lemieux for the period made 16 saves on 17 Wings shots.
Erik Bradford just over a minute in, netted the game-winning goal at 1:19. The game-winner, his fifth of the season, was good enough to give him 2nd star honors.
Jonathan Lemieux came up big for the Wings, he stopped 30 of the 33 Royals shots he faced. Parker Gahagen in his Reading debut made 24 saves on 28 shots in the losing effort.
Tag Bertuzzi was awarded the third star in his Royals debut. Bertuzzi scored twice for Reading in the disappointing loss.Â
Josh Passolt was awarded first-star honors for Kalamazoo. Passolt found twine twice for the K-Wings in their big nail-biting win.
Reading and Kalamazoo cap off the two-game set Saturday night in downtown Reading, with puck drop set for 7 p.m. Promotion on Saturday, December 2nd, is Christmas in Margaritaville. Specialty jerseys and a Hawaiian shirt giveaway to the first 2,500 adult fans will be worn.
Santander Arena| Reading, PA
