Admirals suffer sweep vs. Royals
“Teddy Bear Toss II” at Scope was similar to the previous night’s “Teddy Bear Toss I” — fans got to throw stuffed gifts onto the ice Saturday, but the Norfolk Admirals lost to Reading.
The Royals completed a threegame, four-day ECHL sweep by edging the Admirals 3-2 before a crowd of 4,228.
As in Friday’s 4-1 defeat, some spectators reacted to Norfolk going ahead 1-0 by tossing teddy bears and other presents onto the ice. The gifts will be taken to local children’s hospitals.
This time, Denis Smirnov netted his second goal of the season 14:06 into the game with a wrist shot, getting assists from Andrew McLean and Justin Robidas on a power play.
Also for the second night in a row, a goalie making his Admirals debut took the loss. Saturday it was Brody Claeys despite his 23 saves.
Claeys, a 27-year-old Manitoba native who played in college for Alaska-Anchorage, has been in the Southern Professional Hockey League and ECHL since 2019. The Admirals are his 11th team in that span; Norfolk recently acquired him from the SPHL’s Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs, for whom he had gone 2-4-2 this season.
Tempers flared far less than in Friday’s game, which brought four fights and 50 penalty minutes per team. There were just 22 penalty minutes Saturday, all on 2-minute minor infractions.
The Royals went from behind to ahead in a 33-second span of the middle period with a pair of evenstrength goals. Ryan Chyzowski scored at 14:02, followed by Brendan Hoffmann at 14:35.
Chesapeake native Brandon Osmundson, who grew up in the Hampton Roads Whalers’ youth program, gained his first point as an Admiral in his fourth game with Norfolk. It came on an assist on Darick Louis-Jean’s second goal of the season at 18:09 of the second. Danny Katic also received an assist on the play, which tied the score at 2.
Reading’s tie-breaking goal came 6:38 into the third period from Jake Bricknell, who was named the night’s No. 1 star as a result. Norfolk brought on an extra attacker with about 1:13 remaining but couldn’t tie the Royals (10-121-1).
Reading goalie Nolan Maier gained his second victory in two nights, stopping 22 shots.
Norfolk (14-9-2-1), second to Adirondack in the North Division, will return to action at 8 p.m. Friday in Indiana against the Fort Wayne Komets. The Admirals will close December with games Saturday and next Sunday in West Virginia against the Wheeling Nailers.
The Admirals won’t be home again until Jan. 5, when they will represent Portsmouth in a City Series game against the Indy Fuel.