Photo Credit: Jaidin Cardona
The Reading Royals and Maine Mariners returned to Pennsylvania for a battle this weekend. The Royals began play with a 3-2 lead in the series and the Mariners yearning to push the series to a game seven. However, that did not happen. The Royals took the series in six games after a convincing 6-2 victory when they returned home. The first period opened up with speed and aggression as the Royals wanted to clinch a round two spot and the Mariners wanted to force a game seven.
That energy was kept the whole 60 minutes of hockey. With Devon Paliani opening up the scoring with an assist by Evan Barratt. Barratt would go on to have a three point night with two assists in the first and one assist in the second. The Royals had two power plays that they neglected to capitalize on and one penalty that they successfully defended. The Mariners did, however, tie the game with a goal by Mitchell Fossier, assisted by Matthew Santos and Bruins prospect Curtis Hall. Jacob Gaucher broke the 1-1 tie with a goal assisted by Evan Barratt and Colin Felix. The first period ended with a Royals 2-1 lead and with a penalty on Alec Butcher for slashing.
Of course, the second period opened with 44 seconds remaining on the Butcher slashing penalty, which was successfully killed by the Royals Shortly thereafter, the Mariners tied the game with a goal from Nick Master, assisted by Mitchell Fossier. Captain Garrett McFadden also scored, assisted by Charlie Gerard and Mason Millman. Zayde Wisdom found the back of the twine, assisted by Barratt and new signee TJ Fergus, who notched his first point with the Royals. In came two more Mariners penalties. First a boarding penalty from Fedor Gordeev and a tripping penalty from Cameron Askew, which carried on into the second period. Both expired and were successfully killed, and the period came to a close with a Royals 4-2 lead.
The third period is where the sunshine came, after Shane Sellar got caught for hooking, and that penalty was killed. In came a high sticking call on Matthew Santos, and then in came a power play goal by Tyler Heidt who was on fire the whole game and was destined for a goal. Heidt’s goal was assisted by Gaucher and Millman. To finish things off, Brendan Hoffmann netted his second goal of the playoff series with an empty netter. The final score of this one was 6-2 and the Royals took the series and are headed to round two.
Who will they play in round two and the schedule are yet to be determined. Head Coach James Henry accomplished securing a round two playoff berth with his first year as a professional Head Coach.
Here is what coach Henry said about the
atmosphere last night after Zayde Wisdom’s goal, “I felt like whe Wisdom scored that goal the crowd kind of got two attempts to react to it, and that was probably one of the loudest moments that I’ve heard from them in a while.”
Captain McFadden also joined the press conference, “Obviously we’re a pretty young group. That was a first elimination game for a lot of guys and I’d say we
handled ourselves pretty well. Proud of the way we battled through the series.”
Royals fans, you are on to round two, but the coverage won’t stop. Stay with us for all the latest regarding the Royals.
