News release
30 November 2011
Reading, Pa. - For the second-straight game, the Elmira Jackals erased a two-goal deficit against the Reading Royals, coming away with a 3-2 shootout victory at the Sovereign Center on Wednesday night. The Jackals now have consecutive victories against the Royals in which they have overcome 2-0 deficits to win, coming away with a sudden-death OT victory on Saturday and earning the extra point in the shootout tonight.
Louis Liotti fired a puck from the right point that deflected past the stick of Jackals goaltender Brian Stewart and into the net at 2:56 to put Reading up 1-0.
The Royals extended their lead to 2-0 at 14:54 of the first when Dennis McCauley snapped a puck from the left circle off the left post and into the net.
Matt Campanale snuck a puck past Royals netminder Joe Palmer from the right goal line at 3:29 of the second period for his first goal with the Jackals, making the score 2-1.
During a scramble in front off of a Rob Bellamy shot, Kevin Harvey fired a puck past Palmer 23 seconds into the third period to tie the game, 2-2.
The teams skated through the remainder of regulation and overtime without a goal, as Elmira went to a shootout for the second time in 2011-2012.
Dustin Gazley backhanded a puck past Palmer in the first round, while Stewart made a glove save on Yannick Riendeau on Reading's opportunity. After Artem Demkov and Ryan Cruthers were unable to score for their respective teams in the second round, Mike Radja fired a puck high glove over Palmer to give the Jackals a 2-0 lead. Stewart then made a stick save on Yannick Tifu, giving Jack Downing a chance to put the shootout away. Downing lifted a puck over Palmer's glove from the slot to give Elmira the shootout victory in the top of the fourth round.
Stewart improved to 5-3-0-0 on the season, making 21 saves on 23 shots and making saves on all three Royals bids in the shootout. The Burnaby, British Columbia native has turned aside all eight shootout bids he has seen in 2011-2012. Palmer fell to 4-4-1-2 with 38 saves on 40 shots.
The Jackals are perfect in four games that have gone to overtime in 2011-2012, with two sudden-death victories and two shootout wins.