READING, PA- The Adirondack Thunder road woes have continued as they have now lost six straight games, including Friday Night’s game vs Reading Royals, which might have been the ugliest of them all. For the Thunder, things would look promising as they would open up the scoring as Dom Marcinkevics fed Ryan Smith, who found the back of the net for his team-leading 22nd goal of the season just 1:32 after the opening draw. It was an uneventful opening frame, with only 11 total shots on goal by both teams. The second period would be more physical than the first, as it only got worse as the game went on, but Kenny Johnson and Darion Skeoch, who had been getting tied up all night, finally dropped the gloves at the 14:01 mark for the first of three fights in Friday’s game. Kenny Johnson’s fight would spark a light in the Royals as 2:21 later, Devon Paliani would feed Joseph Nardi in front to tie the game at two; Palliani would break his previous single-season career-high of 30 points in a season with the assist.
“That’s their game they need to play physical to play well and sometimes it crosses the line which I don’t like, but we were able to take advantage on the PP again tonight but I really don’t like the stuff that goes on at the end of the game when it’s already out of hand, there’s a time and a place, the physicality of fights, I don’t condone fighting or pressure them into fighting but they are the ones competing at the end of the day guys have to stick up for themselves of stick up for others”
Jason Binkley, Head Coach of the Reading Royals
In the third, it would be Devon Palliani who would open the floodgates for the Royals on a tip-in that would beat Brodeur and give the Royals the lead at the 9:01 mark of the third. Reading would double their lead at the 11:48 mark as Justin Michaelian found a rebound and found the back of the net for his fourth of the year as Mason Millman broke the Royals record for assists by a defenceman. Just 29 seconds later, Nico Blachman dropped the gloves with Will Zmolek as Blachman also got a minor for charging. It would take the Royals only two seconds to get on the board as Ryan Cox would his first of two goals of the night. Brendan Less and Austin Master dropped the gloves in what would be Masters’s first pro fight, and just 16 seconds later, Cox would find the back of the net for his second of the night. Shane Sellar and Ryan Cox would both score before things got ugly, and Grant Jozefek had an ugly slash on Michaelian; Michaelian, once he got up, went straight to the locker room as Jozefek got five and a game misconduct for the hit and could easily be facing a suspension. Will Zmolek and Darion Skeoch would also get matching misconducts as a total of 59 penalty minutes were handed out in the third period as the Royals won 6-1. “That’s their game they need to play physical to play well, and sometimes it crosses the line, which I don’t like, but we were able to take advantage on the PP again tonight, but I really don’t like the stuff that goes on at the end of the game when it’s already out of hand, there’s a time and a place, the physicality of fights, I don’t condone fighting or pressure them into fighting, but they are the ones competing at the end of the day guys have to stick up for themselves of stick up for others.”
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