The Reading Royals visited the Mary Brown’s Centre on Thursday evening for game four in the second round of the Kelly Cup playoffs against the Newfoundland Growlers. Coming into this game, the Royals faced elimination trailing 3-0 in the series.
The Royals scored three goals in the first five minutes of the first period. A minute and nine seconds into the game, Alec Butcher (1) put the Royals up 1-0 with assists from Zayde Wisdom and Charlie Gerard. A minute and forty-eight seconds later, Jacob Gaucher (5) extended the Royals’ lead to 2-0 with assists from Evan Barratt and Zayde Wisdom.
Two minutes and fifty-one seconds later, Jacob Gaucher (6) scored his second goal of the game for a 3-0 lead with an assist from Zayde Wisdom. With a minute and fifty-nine seconds left of the period, Will MacKinnon (1) and it was now 4-0 Royals with an assist from Jacob Gaucher. The Royals had 13 shots and led 4-0 after one period.
Thirty-five seconds into the second period, Tyler Boland (2) scored a power play goal, cutting the Royals lead to 4-1 with assists from Orrin Centazzo and Jonny Tychonick. Eleven minutes and ten seconds later, Pavel Gogolev (3) scored for the Growlers and it was now 4-2 with assists from Orrin Centazzo and Tyler Boland. The Royals had six shots on goal and led 4-2 after two periods.
Ten minutes and thirty-three seconds into the third period, Shane Sellar (1) scored a power play goal that made it 5-2 Royals with assists from Mason Millman and Jacob Gaucher. Four minutes and eight seconds later, Brennan Kapcheck (1) scored for Newfoundland and it was now 5-3 with an assist from Jonny Tychonick.
Two minutes and nine seconds later, Mason Millman (1) put the game away with a goal for a 6-3 lead. The Royals had four shots and defeated the Growlers by the final score of 6-3. The series is now 3-1 Growlers.
The Royals finished the night with 23 shots, 1-4 on the power play, and Pat Nagle made 27 saves. On the other side, the Growlers had 30 shots, 1-7 on the power play, and goalies Dryden McKay and Luke Cavallin combined with 17 saves.
The two teams will meet in game five on Saturday at 5:30 pm. Tickets for the game are available on StubHub and Viagogo.
