Nelson's pair of goals sparks Steelheads to victory

The Idaho Steelheads (20-12-2) earned a 3-1 win tonight against the Reading Royals (10-25-2) behind a pair of goals from Ben Nelson, and a tally from Garett Bembridge that opened the scoring. Garett Bembridge opened the scoring for the Steelheads by picking up his own rebound at 6:43 of period number one; the goal was a power play goal, assisted by Matt McKnight and Tyler Shelast. The goal would be the only one in the first period. One fight came out of the first; Matt Stephenson squared off with Kirk MacDonald of the Royals. Ben Nelson scored the first of his two on the evening at 9:29; an unassisted goal, as he made move in the slot and found an opening behind Reading goalie Michael Ouzas. Nelson?s second of the period, and second of the game, came at 13:41. The goal was his team-leading 16th, assisted by Kory Scoran and Kris Sparre. Steve Ward added one goal for Reading, but it was not enough to pull his team back. The goal came at 16:46 of the second on the power play, with assists going to Brock Hooton and Peder Skinner. Ward picked the far top corner from the top of the left wing circle, and found his spot. Matt Climie got the nod in net for Idaho for the third consecutive game, and earned the victory stopping 26 shots. December?s ECHL Rookie of the Month continued his success, stopping 26 of 27 Reading shots to improve to 12-6-0. Michael Ouzas suffered the loss for Reading, despite stopping 42 of 45 shots for the Royals; his record fell to 12-9-1 on the season.