TOP NOTES OF THE WEEK1. This past week, the Royals played the first game in team history in both the Lucas County Downtown Arena in Toledo, Ohio, and Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michi- gan. Although Reading won the team's first game in Toledo's new building (7-3 on Friday, October 23), the Royals were unable to pull a win out of Kalamazoo in two tries. The Royals do not have another regular season game scheduled in Toledo this year; but Reading does play again in Kalamazoo (on December 9).
2. Friday's game in Toledo marked the seventeenth time in team history that the Royals have scored seven or more goals in a single game. The 2002-03 Royals scored seven goals four times that year-which is the team high; and the only year that Reading has not had a game where the team scored at least seven goals was last season. The team record for goals in a single game is 10 (v. Greensboro Generals, January 16, 2002, 10-3 win).
3. Seven different players scored a goal in Friday's win and fourteen of the sixteen skaters registered at least one point.
4. Friday's win was also the first 'come-from-behind' win of the year for the Royals. (Reading trailed 1-0 in the first period). The single season team record for come-from- behind wins for the Royals was set in 2005-06, when the team came back 19 times to pull out the win. The 2007-08 Royals came from behind to win 17 times in the regu- lar season and five times in the playoffs.
5. In Friday's game, Andrew Sarauer was awarded the thirteenth penalty shot in Royals' history at the 18:38 mark of the second period of play. (Twelve different Royals' players have taken a penalty shot-Greg Hogeboom has taken two and scored on both of them). When Sarauer scored on his penalty shot attempt, he became the sixth Royal to bag a penalty shot goal for Reading, and it snapped a streak of three misses in a row on the penalty shot for the Royals. The last Royal to score on a penalty shot was Mac Faulkner (on former Royal goaltender Curtis Darling-who was playing for the Wheeling Nailers) on January 16, 2009.
6. Saturday's 3-2 overtime loss in Kalamazoo was the twenty-third OTL in the history of the Royals. That game also marked the first 'blown lead' of the season for the Royals, who led 2-0 early in the second period. The 2001-02 Royals set the team record with 21 blown leads.
7. Stefano Giliati scored a goal in each of the three games played by the Royals this week and is currently riding a four game goal scoring streak. (Joe Zappala established the team record by scoring a goal in eight consecutive games from 02/22/08 - 03/08/08). Giliati's four point performance on Friday night (1g-3a) is a season high for the Royals and a personal career high. Giliati currently leads the Royals in a number of offensive categories including goals (4), points (8), power play goals (2), and shots (18).
8. Ben McLeod had his three game goal scoring streak snapped in Saturday's 3-2 OTL in Kalamazoo. McLeod has registered at least one point in four of the five games played by Reading this year.
9. Gavin Morgan had his four game assist streak snapped on Sunday in Kalamazoo. The team record for consecutive games in which a player has registered at least one assist was established by Mike Kompon (01/13/06 - 02/07/06) when he picked up at least one assist in ten consecutive games for the Royals.
10. Danick Bouchard had his three game point streak snapped in Sunday's 6-1 loss in Kalamazoo. On Friday in Toledo, Bouchard had his first multi-point game (1g-2a) as a member of the Royals. That marked the fourth time in the two year pro career for Bouchard that he has registered three points in a single game. (He did it three times for Florida last season before the Royals picked him up when the Everblades released him in March of 2009).
11. The Royals power play scored two goals in fourteen chances with the man advantage in the three games played this past week. Overall this season, the Royals have scored four power play goals in thirty-two chances, which translates into a 12.5 % scoring ratio through five games. The worst power play in Royals' team history was in 2001-02 when the team scored PPGs at a 14.3% clip (55 - 186), which was twenty-ninth out of the twenty-nine teams that were in the league that year.
12. Friday and Saturday's games marked the first time this season that Reading's PK blanked the opposition's PP unit. Until Kalamazoo's Rick Cleaver scored a PPG 6:52 into the second period on Sunday, the Royals PK had gone 10 consecutive PPs against without giving up a goal. Reading is 17 for 21 on the PK (81.0% kill ratio, 12th).
CLOSING NOTES
1. Kevin Regan registered his first ECHL win in Toledo last Friday night. Regan has been the only goaltender to appear in a game for the Royals thus far this season. Regan has compiled a record of 1-2-1-1 with a 4.10 goals against average and .887 save percentage.
2. Charlie Kronschnabel scored the Royals' first goal both on Friday in Toledo and Saturday in Kalamazoo. Saturday's goal was the first goal of the game, as well. Kronschnabel scored one 'first goal' the last time he was with Reading (07-08)-in a 5-4 OT victory for the Royals over theWheeling Nailers on February 24, 2008.
3. Daniel Steiner scored his first North American pro goal in Friday's 7-3 win in Toledo. Steiner scored 109 goals in 370 games in an eleven year career in the Swiss National League A before coming to North America this season.
4. Nicholas Bilotto scored his first goal as a member of the Royals in Friday's win in Toledo. Coming into this season, Bilotto (a tenth year pro) had scored a total of 87 goals in 461 total pro regular season games. 28 of those goals were scored in the ECHL with the Charlotte Checkers and the Mississippi Sea Wolves.
5. Five Royals have engaged in fisticuffs so far this season. Scott Langdon had the first fight of the season against Elmira's Guillaume Lepine of Elmira on October 17; Langdon also fought Malcolm MacMillan of Toledo on October 23; Scott Fletcher fought theWalleye's Mike Hedden that night. The Royals engaged in three fights on Sunday in Kalamazoo: (i) Charlie Kronschnabel v Bryan Jurynec; (ii) Dinos Stamoulis v Darryl Bootland; and (iii) Joey Ryan v Mitch Versteeg.
5. Scott Parse became the 14th Royal to play in the National Hockey League after playing for the Royals. Parse who scored 5 goals and assisted on 11 others (16 points) in 18 games with the Royals in 2007-08 made his NHL debut on Saturday night as a member of the Los Angeles Kings. That night, Parse got 15 shifts, play- ing 10:30 worth of game time and registering an assist. In Sunday's win for LA, Parse again picked up an assist in 12:36 worth of game time in 19 shifts.
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