Photo Credit: The Reading Royals
The Reading Royals suited up for the first time since May to face the Adirondack
Thunder in their first pre-season game of the 2023-24 season. It just so happens the first period flew by with just single digits shots on goal for both teams, while the Royals had nine shots on net to the Thunder’s five. Jack Jeffers tried stirring things up a bit fun he fun a hooking penalty after a quiet first half of the period. Unfortunately, the Royals fell 4-3 in a shootout.
The first period flew by. Most players were still getting their footing with their
new linemates. A hooking penalty was called on Jack Jeffers about midway through.
Travis Broughman opened up the scoring with a goal on Nolan Maier. There was a
goalie change due to Maier having some sort of equipment malfunction and Eric Dop
played the rest of the period. Maier did return for the third period, however. The period ended with a 1-0 Thunder lead. Reading Royals Head Coach James Henry was aware of the relaxed period, “We put ourselves in a position where we would generate offense and then we would give up an easy goal or just have some mental errors.”
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There was some good news, as the second period was slightly stronger on both ends. The Royals did commit two penalties, one to Tyler Heidt for cross-checking, and the other was Shane Sellar for slashing. Both were killed by the Thunder, however. Here is what Coach Henry had to say about the lack of capitalizing on the
amount of power plays they had throughout the game, “Next to nothing was done during training camp, that wasn’t our focus. Intentionally.” Coach Henry appeared to be impressed that they were able to create scoring chances without practicing such.
Unfortunately, the Royals fell 4-3, but they did do some good things in this tilt. Things will improve as training camp wears on. This team just needs to play with each other more.
