The Norfolk Admirals couldn’t translate Friday’s victory into sustained success, losing 7-3 Saturday night at Reading in the middle game of a three-game, three-day, two-city ECHL series.

Hunter Johannes scored a hat trick for the Royals, an affiliate of the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers.

The teams will play the rubber game at 3:05 p.m. Sunday at Santander Arena in southern Pennsylvania, where 2,687 came to see the Royals gain payback for Friday’s 5-1 defeat at Scope, which ended Norfolk’s seven-game regulation losing streak.

It took Reading all of 2 minutes and 10 seconds to score more goals than in Friday’s loss. Johannes and former Admiral Carson Golder did the damage, though Norfolk replied to the first score with Kristóf Papp’s goal at the 51-second mark.

The Admirals pulled even at 2

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