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Logo courtesy of the Trenton Devils
For the third-straight game this week the Trenton Devils squandered a lead and wound up losing the game. This Saturday night it was the Reading Royals who were the beneficiaries of Trenton’s misfortunes, winning 4-3 after a shootout.
Brett Wilson put Trenton on the board at 6:36 of the first period capitalizing on Reading’s failure to clear their zone. T-Devils defenseman Justin Pender intercepted a Reading pass and fed the puck over to Wilson who launched a shot from the top of the face-off circle, beating Royals goalie Matt Dalton to the catching glove side.
The game had been relatively clean until Reading’s Dinos Stamoulis hit the T-Devils’ Jeremy Akeson head first into the boards. Kory Nagy, standing up for his teammate, dropped his gloves and went after Stamoulis. Nagy was given the obligatory five minutes in the penalty box, however Stamoulis was given five minutes for fighting, a five minute major penalty for interference, and a ten minute game misconduct; earning an ejection from the game.
Unfortunately for Trenton they were unable to convert on the ensuing five minute power-play. Even worse for the T-Devils was that they gave up a short-handed goal to Reading’s Ben Gordon with only 0:08 left in the first period, as the power-play unit turned-over the puck in their own end.
The second period saw no goals, but that was in part thanks to the T-Devils’ penalty-kill unit which killed-off several Reading power-plays, including a 5-on-3 penalty situation midway through the period.
Three minutes into the third period the Royals’ Ben Gordon scored his second of the game with a fluky, batted-down shot that got past Gerald Coleman. The referee had initially signaled “no goal”, however after conferring with the linesman as to whether or not the puck had been touched with a high-stick, he indicated that it was a legal goal.
As if they took exception to their visitor’s goal, Trenton stormed back for two quick goals to take the lead less than two minutes later. Myles Stoesz tied the game at 5:25 with a wrap-around goal, stuffing the puck past Dalton’s right pad and the post. Then less than 0:40 seconds later Andy Thomas unleashed a one-timer off of a David Leaderer pass scoring to the goalie's glove side, similar to Brett Wilson’s goal earlier in the game. This was Thomas' first goal in his professional career which started just last year as a member of the AHL's Iowa Chops.
But the party ended shortly thereafter. With Justin Coutu in the penalty box for cross checking, Reading’s Olivier Labelle was able to swat the puck into the net as Coleman was slightly out of position.
Both teams pressed hard for the remaining ten minutes of the game and eventually the five minutes of overtime, but the 3-3 deadlock required them to move on to a five-round shootout to decide a winner.
The first four shooters for both teams were turned aside by their respective netminders, but Reading's fifth shooter, Olivier Labelle finally solved Coleman with a shot that went in just under the crossbar. Matt Dalton was able to turn away Kyle Kucharski's shot at the other end to ensure victory for Reading.
The win improves Reading's record to 7-4-1-1 for 16 points, giving them sole possession of second place ahead of Trenton in the East division for the time being. Trenton picked up the single point for losing in the shootout, dropping their record to 5-5-1-2 for 13 points.
Gerald Coleman, in regulation and overtime, stopped 31 of Reading's 34 shots. His personal record falls to 3-1-0-2 on the season. Mike Harder's assist streak ended tonight as both the goal and the assist that were initially credited to him were later corrected once the officials had time to review the play between periods.
Trenton now hits the road for a four-game road trip to play Cincinnati and Kalmazoo twice each. They take on the Cincinnati Cyclones on Tuesday the 17th at 10 am and Wednesdat the 18th at 7:30 pm at US Bank Arena. Then after a day of travel they arrive in Kalamazoo for a 7:30 pm game on Friday night and a 4:00 pm game on Sunday afternoon against the Wings at Wings Stadium. The NJ Minor League Hockey Examiner will be following along with the T-Devils for the first three games of the road trip, bringing you news and results from the games.
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