The Reading Royals (13-15-1-1) concluded their three-game series on Saturday night at the Idaho Central Arena against the Idaho Steelheads (23-9-0-1).
At 2:12 of the first period, Idaho’s Willie Knierim put the Steelheads up 1-0 with an assist by Francesco Arcuri. Then at 9:51, Idaho’s Wade Murphy extended the Steelheads lead to 2-0 with assists by Demetrios Koumontzis and Will Merchant. The Royals had nine shots on goal but trailed 2-0 after one period of play.
At 12:47 of the second period, Idaho’s Francesco Arcuri made it 3-0 with assists by Willie Knierim and Matt Register. With 28 seconds left, Reading’s Tyson Fawcett scored to cut the Steelhead’s lead down to 2-1 with assists by Mason Millman and Matt Brown. The Royals had nine shots on goal but trailed 2-1 after two periods of play.
A minute and twenty-four seconds into the third period, Reading’s Will Zmolek cut Idaho’s lead down to 3-2 with assists by Mason Millman and Tag Bertuzzi. However, Idaho would get those two goals back by Wade Murphy and Keaton Mastrodonato.
The Royals had 15 shots on goal but lost the series finale to the Idaho Steelheads by the final score of 5-2. The Royals took two out of three games from the Steelheads.
The Royals had 33 shots on goal, committed three penalties for six minutes, went 1 for 3 on the power play, and Nolan Maier made 34 saves off 38 shots.
The Royals return to the Santander Arena next Friday to start a three-game series against the Maine Mariners at 7 pm on FloHockey. Purchase Reading Royals tickets today on StubHub and Viagogo.
