Penguins And Flyers: ECHL Edition

Once a year, I like to go to Wheeling, West Virginia to go see the Wheeling Nailers (The Pittsburgh Penguin’s affiliated team in the ECHL) take on the Reading Royals (The Philadelphia Flyers affiliated team in the ECHL). The Reading Royals play their home games at the Santander Arena located in downtown Reading, Pennsylvania. The Royals colors are purple, black, silver, and white. Since 2001, the Royals have ranked among ECHL leaders in regular season attendance. The Royals are the 2013 ECHL Kelly Cup Champions. They earned the title with a five game victory over the Stockton Thunder. The Royals weren’t always the flyers affiliate the royals they were the Blue Jackets, La Kings, Toronto Maple leafs and the Bruins affiliate but on June 6, 2014, the Philadelphia Flyers announced an agreement with the Reading Royals, giving the Philadelphia Flyers an entirely Pennsylvania based minor league system for the first time since 1997-98. Before I headed down to Wheeling, which is about 40 minutes from where I live, I did some research on the Reading Royals this year. I found out that the Royals are neck to neck with the Adirondack Thunder for second place in the east division. I also found that this win would push the Royals unbeaten streak on the road to six (5-0-0-1), If the Royals win, it would mark down the Royals twentieth road victory of the season, to mark the sixth consecutive year in which the team has won twenty or more on the road.  The Royals current record is 34-24-6 for a total of 78 points with 68 games played. The Thunder sit at the same amount of points, but have played one less game than the Royals. As I looked at who the Royals were playing against, I noticed the Wheeling Nailers are also close with Royals holding strong at 76 points. Coincidentally, they also played the same amount of games as the Royals. As I dug into who are the Royals best players, I saw forward Robbie Czarnik leads the team with 23 goals, but it’s forward Justin Crandall who leads the team in points with 54. The team captain for the Royals is old phantoms defenseman Maxim Lamarche. As I got to the arena, we had to buy standing room only tickets which is kind of weird. Even though this a big game and both teams needs the points, I never had to buy standing room only tickets for an ECHL game. I soon realize the big buzz around the arena was that Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty was in the house. The line to meet him was wrap around the whole arena so I didn’t get a chance to meet him sadly.

So as I sneaked my way into a seat, because it seemed like everyone came to see Si more than the game. The Royals goalie to start the game was Adam Morrison, who has .914 save percentage. As the game got underway, it was the Royals who struck first 3:25 into the first period when Mike Pelech set up defenseman Jesper Pettersson in the high slot for a ripper. It didn’t end there Reading took a two-goal lead on a four-on-three power play, Pelech spun and stuffed it behind Palazzese for his eleventh of the year. The period ended 2-1 When Wheeling put one in with 1 minute left in the period. Although there was some question as to whether Stern hit the puck with a high stick, it was ruled a good goal.

After a scoreless second period, Reading banged in a critical third-period insurance goal when Reid hit Brandon Alderson on a two-on-one break with Crandall. Wheeling struggled on the power play giving up a lot of shorthanded goals and chances. Kevin Goumas was awarded a short-handed penalty shot after getting shoved on a breakaway. Although Palazzese stoned Goumas on the penalty shot, Goumas got the last laugh when fifty-four seconds later on a short-handed two-on-one when Crandall hit Goumas for a one timer which passed Palazzese for his eighth of the year. The Royals defeated the Nailers 4-1. The Royals return home to Santander Arena tomorrow (Saturday, April 2 @ 7:00 pm) when the team will face the Norfolk Admirals.