Pesky Pack Prevails Over Reading In Overtime, 4-3

ELMIRA, NY - The resilient Jackals battled back from a two-goal deficit to defeat the rival Reading Royals 4-3 in overtime tonight at First Arena. Lucas Bloodoff scored the game-tying goal in the third period and the game-winning marker in overtime.

The Jackals jumped on the Royals right off the opening face-off when Mike Seidel swung through the neutral zone with the puck and fired a shot from the right circle that rebounded out to Taylor Stefishen. Stefishen returned the rebound, which was saved by Connor Knapp, but the puck popped out to Seidel for his team-leading 19th goal of the season just 18 seconds into regulation. The Royals answered on the power-play at 3:00 of the opening stanza with Ryan Cruthers' 13th goal of the season. Olivier Labelle and Mike Marcou assisted Cruthers' marker. Later in the first frame, Reading jumped ahead 2-1 with Brandon Alderson's sixth goal of the season assisted by Cruthers and Bryant Molle.

The Royals built their lead to two at 4:00 of the second period when Sean Wiles barreled down the right side and snuck a shot past Travis Fullerton for his 21st goal of the season. Following Wiles' tally, Fullerton was pulled and Sam Marotta entered the game. Just 1:04 after the Royals increased their lead, Daniel Turgeon buried his first career ECHL goal past Knapp to cut Reading's lead back down to one. Evan Haney earned his first assist as a Jackal and Steven Shamanski registered a helper as well.

Entering the third period down 3-2, the Jackals eyed the tying tally on the man advantage when David Marshall was whistled for tripping at 2:56. With just 19 seconds remaining on the power-play, Zach Tolkinen's point shot resulted in a loose puck scrum in the slot and Lucas Bloodoff hammered home the tying goal for his eighth goal of the season.

Sixty minutes of regulation wasn't enough to decide a winner in the 15th and final meeting between the Jackals and Royals this season, so the contest headed to overtime. In the bonus frame, Mike Seidel was tripped by Michael Caruso, which sent the Jackals to a power-play for the rest of the game. During the four-on-three man advantage, Nick Tuzzolino's point shot squeezed through traffic and, after hitting Knapp, fell to the feet of Bloodoff for the game-winner and his second goal of the night.

Sam Marotta turned aside all 25 shots faced in 40:26 of work to earn his 10th win of the season. Travis Fullerton stopped 14 of 17 shots faced in 24:00 of action. Connor Knapp allowed four goals on 46 shots faced and was handed the loss. The Jackals finished 2-for-4 on the power-play and Reading went 1-for-2 on the man advantage.