Admirals Blast Royals

(Photo Credit: Jake Blankenship)

NORFOLK, VA. - The Norfolk Admirals (23-34-4-0) offense continued to be red-hot on Friday, blasting the Reading Royals (36-22-2-2) 6-1.

There was just one goal in the opening 20 minutes of play on Friday, coming from the very same man who had six assists on Sunday, John Dunbar.  Paul Cianfrini backhanded the puck out of his own zone to T.J. Foster, who went the length of the ice in transition.  After circling behind the net, Foster sent the puck in front to Dunbar for his 17th goal of the season.

Just 2:20 into the second period, Mikael Tam extended Norfolk's lead to 2-0.  Once again in transition, Ben Murphy shuffled the puck to Nick MacNeil and the Admirals alternate captain would coast down the right hand wing. From the reverse side of his blade #12 sent a pass across the crease to Mikael Tam, where the Quebec City native slid one five-hole past Martin Oullette.

2-0 became 3-0 when Joey Benik capitalized off of a turnover by Reading in their own end.  T.J. Foster picked up the loose puck and found #9 for a patented one-timer.  It was Benik's fourth in just two games.

Reading's Justin Crandall did get the Royals on the board in the period though, beating Philippe Desrosiers on a two-on-one.  Crandall opted to take the shot and was able to get one by the blocker side of the Dallas Stars prospect.

However, the Admirals did have a response to Crandall's tally, coming in the form of Scott Jacklin's first with the team.  Playing in his first game on home ice, Jacklin reaped the benefits of Domenic Alberga's hard work along the wall, stepped in and fired one glove side high to extend the Admirals lead to 4-1.

Norfolk continued to dominate the play in the third and added two more tallies to cap off the evening.  Joey Benik's second of the night came on a breakaway and Ouelette and Tommy Giroux's first goal on Norfolk Scope ice came on a deflection of a Marc Hetnik shot.

With the final score of 6-1 Philippe Desrosiers earned the win, stopping 37 of 38.  Ouellette suffered the loss, allowing six on 38 shots.

The Admirals and Royals do battle once again tomorrow night at Scope with a start time of 7:15.  BB&T has sponsored a cap giveaway for the first 2,000 fans and following the game on green ice the team will auction off it's green jerseys to benefit MDA.  Tickets are on sale now on Ticketmaster.com, as well as at the Norfolk Scope box office.