Royals Win 6-5 in a Shoot Out on Sunday evening.

We headed to Reading on Sunday evening to see the Royals take on the Elmira Jackals. The Royals were on a nine game losing skid, but somehow they seem to shine when we visit the Sovereign Center. Maybe the Royals organization could offer us some free tickets in order to help turn their fortunes around. Probably not, but we had a great time last night witnessing a fantastic see-saw battle between two bitter rivals that was ultimately decided with a shoot out.

Reading would take a 3-0 lead into the first intermission, with Dan Rudisuela, Matt Curley and Kirk MacDonald all beating Jackals goaltender Mitch O'Keefe. Elmira would dominate the second period and even up the score during a painful twenty minutes of hockey for the hosts. The crowd were silenced when Elmira added to that lead with a power play goal early in the third period. Ever resilient, the Royals responded quickly with the second goal of the night from Rudisuela, and then the go-ahead score from Chris Stevens. The lead was short-lived once again, however, as the Jackals' Chris Korchinski would tie the game (and record a hat-trick) with under ten minutes remaining in regulation.

Neither team would score again through the third, nor through the overtime period, and so the penalty shoot out commenced. Reading would connect on 4 of their 6 attempts, and James Reimer would deny 3 attempts to seal the victory. The crowd were ecstatic, and rightly so. Their team had prevailed when most had given up on them. The Royals kept fighting to the end, and edged out the victory in spectacular fashion. The heckling of Bruce Watson only added fuel to a fire that is the Royals and Jackals rivalry (and was thoroughly entertaining - Watson! Watson! Sit down in the box Watson!). Way to go Royals! Look forward to seeing you take it to the Jackals again this Friday evening.