The Reading Royals (15-17-1-1) started a three-game series against the Maine Mariners (14-15-5) on Friday night from the Cross Insurance Arena. The Royals went 1-2 against Maine last week at the Santander Arena.
At 10:24 of the first period, Reading’s Yvan Mongo put the Royals up 1-0 with an assist by Joseph Nardi. A minute and four seconds later, Maine’s Gabriel Chicoine tied the game 1-1 with assists by Billy Constantinou and Nathan Noel.
Then at 16:00, Reading’s Tag Bertuzzi put the Royals back up 2-1 with assists by Tyson Fawcett and Matt Brown. The Royals had five shots on goal and led 2-1 after one period of play.
At 13:35 of the second period, Reading’s Joseph Nardi extended the Royals lead to 3-1 with assists by Tag Bertuzzi and Devon Paliani. The Royals had nine shots on goal and led 3-1 after two periods of play.
At 5:54, Reading’s Devon Paliani made it 4-1 Royals with assists by Shane Sellar and Brayden Guy. Less than a minute later, Maine’s Gabriel Chicoine cut Reading’s lead down to 4-2 with assists by Alex Kile and Nathan Noel.
However, the Royals would get the goal back at 15:44 by Matt Brown which made it 5-2 with assists from Tyson Fawcett and Tag Bertuzzi. The Royals had seven shots on goal to defeat the Maine Mariners by the final score of 5-2.
The Royals had 21 shots on goal, committed three penalties, went 1 for 3 on the power play, and Parker Gahagen made 17 saves off 19 shots.
The two teams will square off again on Saturday at 6 pm on FloHockey. Purchase Reading Royals tickets today on StubHub and Viagogo.
