Down one

By Julie Pelchar Reading Eagle

The Royals give up a pair of third-period goals to drop their semifinal playoff opener to Wheeling. Sports, D1
   

WHEELING, W.Va. — The Wheeling Nailers weren’t satisfied with merely piercing Reading’s skin Thursday night.
   Because after their dagger drew blood in the final period, they wasted little time inflicting the mortal wound.
   Steve Crampton broke a tie early in the third and Jake Ortmeyer scored 70 seconds later as the top-seeded Nailers pulled away to beat the Royals 3-1 in Game 1 of an ECHL Northern Division semifinal series at WesBanco Arena.
   The Royals stay in Wheeling for tonight’s 7:30 faceoff, when they’ll try to tie the best-of-five series at one game apiece before returning to Reading for Saturday’s game at the Sovereign Center.
   "It just kind of took the wind out of our sails," Royals forward Jamie O’Leary said of Wheeling’s 1-2 punch. "But hopefully we’ll be able to come back. We’ve got to win three games, and that’s what’s great about this. It’s not do or die anymore."
   Monday night was win or go home for the Royals, when they beat Johnstown 2-1 in a onegame playoff that kept them alive.
   They seemed to feed off that momentum Thursday, scoring the opening goal during fouron-four play 3:28 into the game.
   Chris Lynch picked up a turnover in the neutral zone and fed the puck to O’Leary, who skated through the left circle and beat Tyler MacKay.
   O’Leary skated on Reading’s first line with Judd Medak and Kent Davyduke as a temporary replacement for leading scorer Graig Mischler.
   Mischler missed the trip with an undisclosed injury suffered Monday, when he was crosschecked in the corner. He is expected to play Saturday.
   Meanwhile, the Nailers played without all-star Jason Jaffray, who remains sidelined with a sprained ankle.
   Wheeling’s other weapons tied it at 1-1 early in the second. The prolific pair of J.F. Dufour and captain J.C. Ruid combined for the goal, as Dufour knocked a rebound over goalie Cody Rudkowsky.
   A critical mistake led to Crampton’s go-ahead goal 2:23 into the third, when the Royals turned the puck over at their blue line. After Brad Mehalko picked it up and shot it wide, the puck caromed off the boards to Crampton, who fired it past Rudkowsky from the bottom of the right circle.
   Ortmeyer quickly made it 3-1 with his blast from the blue line.
   "We turned pucks over at the blue line," said Royals coach Derek Clancey. "It caused the second goal. We did things that we can’t do. We didn’t do those things in Johnstown. We’re not going to beat this team making those kinds of mistakes.
   "We’ve got to be better. That’s the bottom line. We beat ourselves more than anything else tonight."
   Reading had a pair of powerplay opportunities during the final 10 minutes, but barely got the puck on net with the man advantage.
   The hungry Nailers, playing before an announced crowd of 2,967 in their first playoff game in six years, played tight defense in front of MacKay the rest of the way as they try to parlay the best season in franchise history into a run to the Kelly Cup championship.
   Contact Julie Pelchar at 610-371-5065 or japelchar@readingeagle.com.

: Reading’s Chris Lynch, center, comes to the aid of teammate Dave Stewart during a scuffle in the Royals’ 3-1 loss Thursday night.