Johnstown Chiefs Unable To Find The Right Combination In 4-3 Loss To The Reading Royals In ECHL Action

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MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com – Johnstown, PA - April 6, 2007 - The Reading Royals defeated the Johnstown Chiefs by a score of 4-3 at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena on Friday night.

Reading opened the scoring at 1:56 of the first period when Greg Hogeboom banged a rebound in from the doorstep to beat Morgan Cey. Joe Zappala took the initial shot and earned an assist on the play, and Brett Smith picked up the other helper.

The Chiefs answered with their own rebound goal on the power play when Gus Katsuras poked one past Reading's Yutaka Fukufuji twenty-six seconds into Kevin Saurette's holding minor. Maxime Boisclair, and Dmitri Tarabrin assisted on the goal.

The Royals owned the second period, scoring three goals, and out-shooting the Chiefs 11-3. Jason Becker scored the first of the second on the power play at 5:49 with help from Eric Wermer and Greg Hogeboom. Shawn Collymore took charge scoring his two goals in the second half of the period. The first came at 10:31 when Collymore backhanded a shot from along the goal line off of Morgan Cey's leg pad and into the net, and the second came at the 13:30 mark. Zappala and Hogeboom assisted on the first goal while Saurette and Chris Bala helped on the second.

Johnstown pulled within two goals when Marek Kvapil picked up a loose puck on the doorstep and wristed it over Fukufuji's shoulder with 9:47 left in the third. Katsuras picked up his second point by assisting on the goal, and Bryan Nathe earned a helper as well. P.J. Atherton pulled the Chiefs within one when he blasted a one-timer into the net from the left point with an extra attacker on the ice and Morgan Cey pulled. The goal came at 18:54 of the period, and Grant Jacobsen and Radek Smolenak helped on the

play.