Before he disappeared into the locker room, Mischler did a little circle in front of the bench and pounded the ice enthusiastically with his stick.

Then, with a little nod of his head, Mischler raised his stick to the fans.

No PA system in the land could scream thank you louder than that.

And the fans acknowledged the gesture by raising the noise level another notch in appreciation of Reading's 2-1 victory over the Toledo Storm Thursday night at the Sovereign Center.

Reading's win clinched first place in the ECHL's tough North Division.

“The fans are the ones who really get us through the tough times,” Mischler said. “They give us that extra energy when we don't have the legs. Those are the people we have to thank.

“That was just my little way of letting them know how much we all appreciate what they do for us.”

Technically, the Royals didn't have to win Thursday night to clinch first place. A win tonight in Atlantic City or Saturday at Wheeling would have accomplished the goal.

But it wouldn't have been the same. It wouldn't have made the moment as special.

It would have been the sundae without the cherry.

“Oh, man, yeah we wanted to do it in front of them,” Mischler said. “They always stand by us. We started 0-5 and they still kept filling the building and kept cheering us on.

“You know, you can't control everything that happens in a game. But you can control what you are going to go out and do on the ice. We wanted to play hard for our fans, and we knew if we did we'd have a good chance to win.”

The Royals put together a solid effort defensively and kept quality chances against to a minimum. Reading effectively clogged up the neutral zone and did a good job clearing pucks and not sitting back.

The Storm was kept to the outside and didn't apply a lick of sustained pressure in the third period. In the final minute with the goalie pulled, Toledo couldn't even get across the red line.

Toledo did, however, grab the early lead when Rick Judson one-timed a wrister past goalie Barry Brust with 7:26 left in the first period.

Reading took advantage of a turnover to tie it. The Royals dumped the puck into the offensive zone and Storm defenseman Paul Ballantyne misplayed it off the back boards.

Mike Sandbeck collected the loose puck and snuck a shot through Scott Fankhouser's pads to make it 1-1 with 3:50 left in the first period.

Reading took the lead for good with 11:48 left in the second when Mischler finished off an odd-man break by burying a shot after a setup from defenseman Troy Milam.

From then on, the game was pretty quiet. So was the building.

Until the final horn sounded.

And over all the hoopla you could hear Mischler stick slamming that ice in appreciation of all the noise the fans made all season.

Contact Matt Malinowski at 610-371-5064 or mmalinowski@readingeagle.com.