GREENSBORO, NC – The Greensboro Gargoyles took down the Reading Royals 6-2 on Thursday night at the First Horizon Coliseum as the offense exploded with three power play goals and a trio of franchise record tying performances.

Colton Leiter opened the scoring on a shot from the blue line 5:26 into the first period, assisted by Tyler Weiss and Deni Goure. The Gargoyles would score again on their second power play opportunity as Weiss scored his team-leading 12th of the season from Goure and Noah Delmas.

Reading would cut into the lead 4:53 into the second period, but the Gargoyles responded immediately with a power play goal from Blake Biondi 20 seconds later. Dalton Skelly scored his first goal of the season as Weiss picked up his fourth point of the night with an assist. Biondi scored again on the power play, deflecting a shot by Delmas that snapped Biondi’s stick in the process. Anthony Messuri added one more, giving the Gargoyles a 6-1 lead on his first career goal as Graeme McCrory fought through a delayed tripping penalty on the assist.

“It feels really good,” said Messuri. “The last couple years have had a lot of ups and downs, so it feels good that all the hard work is finally starting to pay off. It's a credit to how the team played tonight. Since I’ve been with the team, I think that’s the best I’ve seen us play. We played connected and we played hard.”

The Royals got one more goal 5:48 into the third period, but the Gargoyles would skate out the clock to finish the win. Greensboro’s power play went 3-for-6 and their penalty kill finished 3-for-4. Ruslan Khazheyev matched a career and franchise high with 41 saves on 43 shots against. Tyler Weiss (1G-3A) and Noah Delmas (4A) each had four points tying a franchise record for most points in a single game.

“We showed up from the puck drop, we had good details and we worked hard,” said Weiss. “It feeds my confidence, for sure. I just want to build off of it and keep trying to help the team win.”

“Our power play was good. Our penalty kill was decent. Our 5-on-5 play was good,” said Head Coach Scott Burt. “All four lines were going and [Ruslan] was on again. For this group, we can’t sit back, we just need to keep playing the right way. Now we really have to show up tomorrow… us coaches have to have these guys ready to go, and once that puck drops, there’s the first battle and we go.”

The Gargoyles hit the beach for Margaritaville Weekend on Friday and Saturday, continuing their three-game set against the Royals, reminding fans it’s always 5-O’Clock Somewhere. The team will take the ice in Hawaiian themed specialty jerseys. Tickets and more information are available at gargoyleshockey.com.

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