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 Reading Royals

Reading Royals Weekly

October 18, 2010 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Player of the Week Nomination

Ryan Cruthers

I supposed it came as a surprise to just about no one who's been around the Royals in recent times when it was announced that Ryan Cruthers had been selected as the team's captain. It proba- bly came as even less of a surprise when Cruthers scored a third period short-handed goal to break a 4-4 tie on Satur- day and helped catapult the Royals to the team's first win in a season opener since 2006. We've seen that act be- fore-and quite honestly, it never gets tired. Ryan didn't look all that tired this weekend, either, as he picked up right where he left off last May when he led the ECHL in playoff scoring, racking up a pair of multi-point games to lead the team with 5pts (3g-2a) in 2 games.

TOP NOTES OF THE WEEK

1. Saturday's 6-5 win in Trenton marked the first season opening victory for the Royals since October 20, 2006, when Reading beat the then-Trenton Titans at the then- Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey, 3-2. Historically, the Royals are 5-5-0-0 in season openers, six of which have been played against their closest geographic rival in Trenton. In those games, the Royals are 3-3-0-0.

2. The 6-4 loss in Trenton on Sunday afternoon was the second time in team history that Reading lost the team's second game of the year after winning the season opener. The last time that happened was in 2002-03. The best start ever in the ten year history of the Royals was in the 2005-06 season when the team went five games (4-0-1) before losing in regulation.

3. Ryan Cruthers racked up a pair of multi-point games in the opening weekend for the Royals. In Saturday's win, Cruthers scored a pair of goals-including a third period short-handed goal to break a 4-4 tie-and picked up an assist on the goal that proved to be the game winner (by Olivier Labelle) later in the third. Cruthers scored a goal and assisted on another in the third period, as the team attempted to mount a four goal comeback, in Sunday's loss. Cruthers, who had 19 multi-point games last season, is currently second in the league in goals scored (3) and tied for second in total points registered (5).

4. Olivier Labelle scored the first goal of the 2010-11 season for the Royals 2:46 into the game on Saturday. Labelle also scored at the other end of the game-12:05 of the third period-to bag what proved to be the game winner in the team's 6-5 victory. Last season, Labelle tied for the team lead with four GWGs. On Sunday, Labelle racked up 24 PIMs, primarily due to a late game spearing infraction and a fight (and a game misconduct). Labelle, who is currently second in the league in PIMs (26), led the Roy- als last year with 162 penalty minutes, and he was third on the team with seven fighting majors.

5. Andrew Sarauer, who led the Royals with 28 goals last year, scored the first power play goal for the team on the Royals first opportunity with the man advantage in Saturday's win. Last season, Sarauer scored four PPGs for Reading.

6. Ryan Donald scored his first goal as a pro in Saturday's 6-5 win. He also became the forty-fifth Royal in team history to score in his first game with Reading. Donald also engaged in the team's first fight of the 2010-11 season when he took on Trenton's Justin Pender in Sunday's game.

7. Eric Castonguay, who led the Trenton Devils in scoring for two consecutive seasons (2007-08 and 2008-09) scored his first goal as a Royal in Sunday's game against his former team. Casey Haines and Josh Engel also scored their first goals as a member of the Royals' organization in that game. For Haines, that was his first pro goal.

8. Ben Gordon registered multi-assist performances in both games played this weekend (0g-4a). Gordon led the Royals last year with twenty-five multi-point games. Gordon has now registered a total of 91 points (30g-61a) in 70 regular season games with the Royals. He is currently tied with Chris Bala in seventh place in the all-time scoring list for Royals. Gordon is forty-eight points shy of the all-time leader in that category, Brad Rooney.

9. Defenseman Alain Goulet registered a pair of assists in his first game with the Royals on Saturday. He is the eleventh player in team history to register two (or more) assists in his first game with the team. The record in that category is held by Jeff Giuliano, who racked up five assists in his first game as a Royal on October 11, 2002.

10. Goaltender Ben Scrivens picked up his first win as a pro in his first game as a Royal on Saturday. He also came on in substitution of Adam Courchaine at the 7:13 mark of the first period and played the last 51:34 of that game, stopping 22 of the 23 shots he faced. (However, he was the hard-luck loser in that game, as the only goal scored against him proved to be the game winner.)

11. The Royals power play scored three times in ten chances with the man advantage this past weekend, which is a 30.0% scoring ratio (tied for fifth best in the league). The penalty kill had a bit more trouble, allowing 4 PPGA in 11 chances for Trenton, which is a 63.6% kill ratio-last in the league amongst teams that have played so far.

CLOSING NOTES

1 . Cruthers SHG was the first of the season for the team, which had fifteen shor- ties-second best in the league-last year. Cruthers had two short-handed goals for the Royals last year.

2. Sunday's game with the 650th in Royals team history. The Royals have an over- all regular season record of 313-272-65 in nine-plus years of play, which trans- lates into a .532 win percentage.

3. The Royals allowed five goals against in the first period of Sunday's loss. That marked the tenth time in team history the Royals have allowed five or more goals in a single period. It is only the second time that it has occurred in the first pe- riod. On January 24, 2003, the Royals allowed six goals in the first period of a 9-4 loss in Johnstown to the Chiefs.

3. Trevor Kell of the Trenton Devils scored on the first shot fourteen seconds into Sunday's game. However, that is not the quickest goal ever scored against the Royals. Jean Desrochers of the Johnstown Chiefs scored nine seconds into a 4-1 loss for Reading on February 2, 2007 in Johnstown.


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