The Newfoundland Growlers saw their 11-game ECHL win streak come to an end Friday night in Pennsylvania, where they lost 4-1 to the Reading Royals.
It will go down as one of those contests that was much closer than the score indicated; the Royals’ last two goals were empty-natters scored in the final couple of minutes of the third period after Growlers’ netminder Parker Garhagen had been pulled for an extra attacker.
Marcus Power, with his team-leading 19th goal of the season, was the only Newfoundland player to score on Reading’s Kirill Ustimenko, who made 28 saves in a second-star performance.
The Royals’ Hayden Hodgson, who broke a 1-1 tie late in the second period, was named the fist star, while Garhagen, who made 31 stops, was the third-star selection.
Corey Mackin and Frank DiChiara scored empty-netters for the home side.
The Growlers get a chance to start a new winning streak in a rematch tonight against the Royals, who have moved into second place in the ECHL’s North Division, seven points behind Newfoundland, which still has a game in hand.
After the game, the Growlers travel to Brampton, Ont., to finish a buys weekend road trip with a Sunday-evening game against the third-place Beast.
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