By
- Tim Foley | Worcester Railers
Reading, PA – The Worcester Railers HC (34-29-76pts) fall to the Reading Royals (32-29-9-2, 75pts), on Friday night in shootout loss by a final score of 4-3 in front of a crowd of 3,509 at the Santander Arena. The Railers are back on the ice next at the Santander Arena on Friday, April 11th at 7:00 p.m. EST.
Reading quickly got on the board and made it a 3-0 game before the end of the first off the sticks of Matt Miller (1-0-1), Shane Sellar (1-0-1) and Mason Primeau (1-0-1). The Railers finally netted one off the stick of Anthony Repaci (2-0-2) about halfway through the game. Lincoln Hatten (1-0-1) and Repaci each tacked on goals in the third to tie the game up 3-3.
As neither team scored in OT, the game went to a shootout where Matt Brown potted the only goal to give the Royals a 4-3 shootout win over the Railers. The loss for Worcester forces a winner-take-all game on Saturday night for the fourth and final playoff spot in the North Division.
The Royals got to work quickly with a goal from Matt Miller (14) just 11 seconds after puck drop giving the Royals a 1-0 lead over the Railers. Reading added to their lead off the goal from Shane Sellar (12) on a busy scrum out in front of the net of Michael Bullion in net for Worcester 7:32 into the first period. Mason Primeau (12) deflected a point-shot off of his skates on the power-play to give Reading a 3-0 lead over Worcester 16:42 into the first period.
The first action of the second period came from Railers captain Anthony Repaci (28) who found the back of the net 9:57 into the second period making it a 3-1 game. His goal came from a one-timer on the power play atop the right circle. The Railers outshot Reading 9-7 in the second period while Reading lead in shots overall 23-17.
Lincoln Hatten (9) got the third period started with a goal on a broken play out in front, finishing off a puck from Tanner Schachle and Connor Welsh to get back within one. Anthony Repaci (29) banged home a goal past Keith Petruzzelli in net for Reading on the coattails of Cole Donhauser rushing the puck into the attacking zone and brought Worcester all the way back with his second goal of the night. 60 minutes of hockey wasn’t enough as the game headed into overtime.
Bullion and Petruzzelli each made five saves in the overtime period as neither team could score in OT. Royals forward Matt Brown scored the lone goal in the bottom of the first round of the shootout to hand the Railers the 4-3 loss.
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