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Trenton, NJ - The Reading Royals handed the Devils their third straight loss in a dramatic 4-3 shootout win Saturday night at the Sovereign Bank Arena to sweep the home-and-home series.



The Devils mimicked Friday night's performance by starting off strong. Defenseman Justin Pender, who returned to the Trenton lineup for the first time since a Halloween contest with the Elmira Jackals, intercepted a hard break out pass in the neutral zone and threw it to the Royals blue line at the left wing for Brett Wilson. The Princeton alum took a couple strides toward the left wing circle and suddenly sent a quick wrist shot toward the goal which surprised newly acquired Reading goaltender Matt Dalton low on his glove side. It was Wilson's third goal of the season at 6:36 of the first and his 11th point of the year.

Though the Devils continued to control the pace through the first period, Reading took advantage of the Devils lax puck control during an extended Trenton power play late in the first. Following an interference major and game misconduct to Dinos Stamoulis at 18:55, Reading used one of its more offensive units to start a five minute penalty kill. Andrew Sarauer took the puck away from the frazzled Devils deep in their own end. He got the puck to Ben Gordon who evened the score at 1-1 with just eight seconds left in the first period.

The second period was highlighted by nine different minor penalties. Neither team took advantage of their respective power plays despite numerous scoring chances. Late in the second, Dan Eves took a hard shot from point-blank range but was robbed by Dalton's glove and the game remained tied through two periods.

Brett Wilson started the rush with a no look pass to Mike Harder who skated over the blue line with a three-on-two, but the puck ended up in the right wing corner for Dan Eves. His feed to the right point for Dave Leaderer was quickly redirected to the left point for a one time blast from Andy Thomas. Celebrating his 24th birthday, Thomas scored his first ECHL goal to put the Devils ahead 3-2 at 6:03 of the third.

Royal Olivier Labelle would even the game up at 8:37 of the third period. Labelle slid away from a cluster of players, hid at the left post and banged in a loose puck as Coleman couldn't get across in time. Daniel Steiner and Jared Ross got the assists.

After a back-and-forth overtime period, the game headed to a shootout. Tim Kunes, Kory Nagy, Justin Pender and Kyle Kucharski were unable to solve Dalton and Olivier Labelle got the lone tally in just underneath the crossbar to win the shootout 1-0 for the Royals.

The Devils pick up one point and remain in third place (5-5-1-2, 13pts), now three points behind second place Reading (7-4-1-1, 16pts) and five points behind East-leading Elmira (8-3-1-1, 18pts) who won Saturday, 11-3 in Gwinnett. The Devils next travel to Cincinnati for two battles with the Cyclons, Tuesday, November 17 at 10:30 a.m. and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Follow the Devils through stories and broadcasts at TrentonDevils.com and video clips on YouTube.