Lions’ four-game season-opening winning streak comes to an end

Saturday night’s opening game of the two-game series against Reading was quite the adventure, with the Lions ultimately prevailing in a shootout. Sunday afternoon's match would determine if the Lions could sweep the series and continue their winning ways, or if the Royals would be able to put a halt to the Lions’ unbeaten start to the season.

The Lions’ Christopher Ortiz opened the scoring in the first period with his first of the season with help from Nolan Yaremko and Justin Ducharme. Towards the end of the period Trois-Rivières’ Nicolas Larivière showed a lack of discipline when he was assessed a minor penalty for cross-checking to give the Royals the man advantage. The Philadelphia Flyers’ affiliate didn’t waste the opportunity and tied the game when Ryan Chyzowski scored his fifth goal of the season with assists going to Darren Brady and Devon Paliani.

The second period started with a bang with the teams scoring three goals in the first six minutes of play. Reading’s Adam Brubacher gave the Royals' the lead at the 3:53 mark, and then a minute later the Lions responded with their second goal of the game thanks to Matthew Boucher with an assist going to Eric Hjorth. Then at the 5:26 mark the Royals’ Tyson Fawcett restored Reading’s lead with assists given to Shane Sellar and Chyzowski. But the Lions still led in the shots on goal department with 28 compared to 21 for the Royals. The crucial question: Would the Lions be able to turn that shot advantage into more goals in the third period?

And what a third period it was! The teams combined for eight goals starting with Trois-Rivières’ Miguël Tourigny leveling the score at 3-3. A few minutes later, it was Austin Master who regained the lead for the Royals. And then every time the Lions scored, the Royals would respond in kind: Boucher for the Lions and then Solag Bakich for the Royals; Maxim Trépanier (his first in a Lions’ uniform) and then Joseph Nardi for Reading. Then Boucher registered his first hat-trick as a Lion when he popped in his third goal of the game. But the celebration didn’t last long as Reading’s Tyson Fawcett scored with 55 seconds remaining in the game to give the Royals the margin of victory. The Lions' four-game winning streak came to an end by a score of 7-6.