A goaltender sets a career-high in saves, while another came up big in his third start.
Yes, there was scoring, too. Let’s dive into this week’s Friday Five.
Yaniv Perets: Reading Royals
Perets had a career night in leading the Reading Royals past the Wheeling Nailers 4-1 on the road.
Goaltender Yaniv Perets (3-0-1-0) earned the win in goal with a single-game career-high 52 saves on 53 shots faced to lead the Royals (9-3-2-0) into a first-place tie with Wheeling (10-3-0-0).
Reading scored two goals in a span of 92 seconds in the first period on tallies from Cam Cook at 9:50 and Connor McMenamin at 11:22 for a 2-0 lead.
After the Nailers cut into the lead 3:08 into the middle frame, Patrick Moynihan restored Reading’s two-goal advantage on a deflection at 14:08, 3-1.
Carson Golder iced the victory with a team-leading seventh goal to complement his assist for a team-high fifth multi-point game.
The Nailers threw everything they had at Perets in the third period, to no avail. He turned aside all 25 shots in the frame to seal the victory, coming two saves shy of matching the franchise record for most saves in a single game at 55, done by Mark Owuya twice. The first came on Dec. 9, 2011 and the second on March 28, 2012. Ironically, both of those games were also against Wheeling.
With the win, the Royals improved to 9-3-2 overall and 6-1-2 on the road, earning a point in eight of their nine away games and 11 of their 14 games overall.
Cody Laskosky: Indy Fuel
Laskosky’s two goals were the difference for the Fuel in a 2-1 home win over the Adirondack Thunder.
It was Laskosky’s debut with Indy after being acquired from Tahoe early Friday morning, and he didn’t disappoint. After a scoreless opening period, he potted his first goal of the game at 15:27. Lee Lapid and Will Ennis claimed the assists on the play.
Laskosky scored his second goal of the night at 7:48 of the third period, with help from Matt Petgrave and Jesse Tucker. This gave the Fuel a 2-0 lead.
Indy goaltender Owen Flores took care of the rest, stopping 25 of the 26 shots he faced to earn the win.
Kyle Keyser: Utah Grizzlies
Keyser saved 32 of 33 shots in a big 3-1 road victory for the Grizzlies over the Tulsa Oilers in front of 8,671 at BOK Center in the opener of a two-game series.
Evan Friesen, Reed Lebster and Garrett Pyke supported their goaltender by each scoring a goal in the win.
Friesen scored a power-play goal as he redirected a Danny Dzhaniyev shot 4:58 into the contest. Utah now has a power play goal in 8 straight games and is 4-2-1 when scoring first this season.
Early in the second period, Lebster scored his team leading seventh goal of the season. Tyler Gratton picked up his team leading ninth assist and Aiden Hansen-Butaka got his second apple of the night.
The Oilers got on the board late in regulation as Owen Lindmark scored his first goal as an Oiler on a power play 17:51 into the third.
Just 50 seconds later, Pyke scored an unassisted empty net goal to complete the scoring for the Grizzlies.
Keyser earned his third victory in a Utah uniform and has saved 102 of 106 shots in three games with the Grizzlies. Tulsa’s Christian Propp stopped 29 of 31 in the loss.
Robert Mastrosimone: Savannah Ghost Pirates
The Ghost Pirates had their most explosive output of the season to date with a convincing 8-1 road win over the Tahoe Knight Monsters in Stateline. Mastrosimone tallied two goals in the victory.
He opened the scoring for Savannah at the 7:14 mark of the opening frame, redirecting a shot from Keaton Pehrson to make it 1–0. Logan Drevitch earned the secondary assist.
After Savannah had increased their lead to 3-0, Mastrosimone potted his second of the night on a power play in the second period. Reece Vitelli picked up the assist.
The Ghost Pirates poured it on, with a point shot from Oliver LeBlanc the only goal the Knight Monsters could generate.
Ryan O’Hara: Greenville Swamp Rabits
O’Hara potted the game-winning goal and picked up an assist in the Swamp Rabbits’ 3-1 win over the Jacksonville Icemen.
Greenville applied the pressure in the first period, outshooting Jacksonville 16-2. It was the Icemen, however, who struck first. Dalton Duhart scored on a broken play for a 1-0 advantage at the 5:40 mark of the frame.
With 9:59 left in the second period, it was the Ryan and Ryan show that got the Swamp Rabbits even. Ryan O’Reilly sprung Ryan O’Hara up the left side of the ice. O’Hara dropped a pass back to Brent Pedersen, who threaded his shot under Jacksonville netminder Scott Ratzlaff’s blocker, leveling the score 1-1. O’Hara earned an assist on the goal.
O’Hara continued his big night into the third period, providing the eventual game-winner in a shorthanded situation. With 64 seconds gone and in the midst of the team’s only penalty kill, O’Hara forced an error that led to a clean breakaway from the blue line. He five-holed Retzlaff at point blank range, giving the Swamp Rabbits their only lead at 2-1.
After Ratzlaff was pulled for the extra attacker, the Icemen couldn’t mount a comeback, which led to Dante Sheriff hitting an empty net with 43 seconds remaining to seal a Swamp Rabbits win at 3-1.