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Reading Royals

The Royal Road Ahead: Reading Royals at Norfolk Admirals

December 2, 2016 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


The Royal Road Ahead Reading Seeks to Extend Winning Streak in First Game of the Year Against Norfolk

READING ROYALS @ NORFOLK ADMIRALS The Scope Arena - Norfolk, Virginia Game Time 7:30 PM et - Royals Broadcast: 7:00 PM et

REA Game No. 21: 10 - 8 - 1 - 1 = 22 (3, NORTH) Road Game No. 14: 6 - 5 - 1 - 1 NOR Game No. 18: 2 - 11 - 4 - 0 = 8 (7, SOUTH) Home Game No. 11: 1 - 6 - 3 - 0

Head-to-Head Game No. 1 of 11 (5 @ REA) (6 @ NOR) REA v NOR: 0 - 0 - 0 - 0

NEXT GAME BETWEEN READING AND NORFOLK Saturday, December 3, 2016 THE SCOPE ARENA - NORFOLK, VIRGINIA @ 7:15 pm ROYALS BROADCAST

AUDIO: iHeartRadio - Rumba 1340 in Reading

TELEVISION: Royals' Road Games are televised locally in Berks County, Pennsylvania on BCTV, which Can Found at Comcast Reading Cable Channel 15, Service Electric Cable Channel 19, Comcast Southern Berks Channel 965

STREAMING VIDEO: ECHL.TV powered by NeuLion (Pay-Per-View)

ROYALS PRE-GAME NOTES -

Tonight, the Royals face the Norfolk Admirals in the first of what will be eleven matchups over the course of the 2016-17 regular season. Five of those games will be played at Santander Arena in Reading, while six-including tomorrow evening's game-will be played here at The Scope Arena in Norfolk. o

Although Norfolk is based the South Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference, the Royals play the Admirals more times than any other club in the league with the exception of the Adirondack Thunder against whom Reading will play eleven times, as well. -

This marks the second season in the ECHL for the Admirals, who are a continuation of the membership that was based in Bakersfield, California, (and known as the Bakersfield Condors) from 2003 through 2015. Prior to the start of 2015-16, the Edmonton Oilers of the NHL purchased the Condors membership and moved it to Norfolk, and placed an AHL team in Bakersfield. The AHL team that played in Norfolk from 2000 through 2015, which was affiliated with the Anaheim Ducks in their final season, was moved to San Diego in the 2015 off-season. o

Norfolk is currently affiliated with the Bakersfield Condors (AHL) and the Edmonton Oilers (NHL). -

In 2015-16, Reading compiled a record of 8-0-0-1 against the Admirals, going 3-0-0-1 in the four games played here at The Scope. o

The Royals played the Bakersfield Condors four times while they were in the ECHL and compiled a record of 3-0-1 in those games.

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Reading comes into tonight's contest riding a season-long four game winning streak and five game unbeaten streak (4-0-1-0).

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The Royals are currently two games over .500 (10-8-1-1=22), which places the team third place in the North Division of the Eastern Conference. o

The high-water mark for the Royals so far this season is four games over .500 at 6-2-0-0 after the team's 5-3 win over the Rapid City Rush on November 5.

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In Reading's last road game-on Friday, November 25 against the Elmira Jackals at First Arena in Elmira, New York-the team snapped a season-long seven game winless streak (0-6-1-0), as well as what was a five game road winless streak (0-4-1-0). o

Tonight's game will be the fourteenth game played by the Royals on the road this season. Reading's record away from Santander Arena stands at one-game over .500 (6-5-1-1). o

The State of Virginia will mark the seventh different state (other than Pennsylvania in which the Royals have played this season. The other six are Colorado, Idaho, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

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The Royals are coming off a 4-2 victory over the Wheeling Nailers at Santander Arena in Reading on Wednesday. o

The Royals scored the first goal of that game 1:19 after the opening face-off while playing with the man advantage. That marked the eighth time this season that Reading has scored the game's first goal with the Royals compiling a 5-2-1-0 record in those games. o

Olivier Labelle scored the Royals' opening goal on Wednesday. That was his team leading tenth goal of the year, and his team-leading third first goal of the season.

Five of Labelle's goals have been scored on the power play, which is tied for the league lead in that category.

Labelle, who has five goals in his last five games, is tied with Chris McCarthy for the team lead in scoring with eighteen points (10g-8a) through nineteen games.

Historically, Labelle has now recorded 219 points (111g-108a) in 248 career regular season games with the Royals, placing him three points behind Yannick Tifu (84g-138a=222pts in 245 games), who is the second leading scorer in Reading hockey history.

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Although Reading scored first in Wednesday's game, the Nailers bounced back with a pair of goals by Cody Wydo, before the Royals were able to counter-punch with three in the third to take the win. o

Wednesday's game marked the sixth come-from-behind win of the year for Reading-and three of those have come during the team's current four game winning streak. o

The win over Wheeling on Wednesday also marked the second consecutive game in which the Royals trailed entering the third period of play and still pulled out the victory.

Reading has compiled a record of 3-7-1-0 when entering the period trailing the opposition.

33 of the Royals' 68 total goals scored (48.5%) have come in the third period this season. Those thirty-three third period goals for Reading lead the league. The team's plus-13 (+13) goal differential in the final frame (33 - 20) is tied with Fort Wayne and Orlando for the league best.

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Reading tied Wednesday's game 5:29 into the third period of play on the sixth goal of the season for defenseman Nick Luukko. o

That marked the second consecutive game in which Luukko scored a third-period goal to tie the game at two in the third period-and Reading went on to win both games. o

Luukko, who has three goals in his last four games, also scored the game-tying goal (at one) 16:21 into the first period of last Friday's 3-2 win in Elmira. o

His six goals is tied second amongst defensemen in the league-and he's scored those six goals on just twenty-six shots for a 23.1% scoring ratio (also second best amongst D-men in the ECHL). o

Luukko also recorded the primary assist on the game winner scored by Ian Watters (9:42 into the third period) on Wednesday. That marked Luukko's first multi-point performance of the year. (He had two multi-point performances in sixty-five regular season games with Reading last year.)

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Ian Watters' first goal of the 2016-17 season proved to be the game winner in Wednesday's game. That was his fourth career game winner as a Royal. o

Wednesday's matchup was Watters' 150th career game as a Royal, which is two games behind Head Coach Larry Courville for ninth most all-time. Watters has fifty-two points (12g-40a=52pts) and 184 penalty minutes in his time with the Royals. o

Four different players have scored the GWG for Reading during this current win streak: Jesper Pettersson, Justin Crandall, Tyrell Goulbourne, and Watters. So far this year, eight different players have bagged a game winner for Reading. Only Mike Pereira (3) has had more than one.

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Matt Wilkins scored an insurance goal for the Royals 12:37 into the third period to make the score 4-2 on Wednesday. Wilkins is currently riding a three-game point streak (2g-1a).

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Chris McCarthy, who assisted on the game-tying goal by Nick Luukko on Wednesday, is riding a three game assist streak (0g-3a). McCarthy, who is tied with Olivier Labelle for the team lead in scoring (7g-11a=18pts), has twelve points in his last eleven games (5g-7a).

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Mike Pelech, who picked up the primary assist on the power play goal by Labelle on Wednesday, leads the Royals with twelve assists.

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Mike Pereira and Olivier Labelle are currently tied for the team lead with fifty-seven shots on goal.

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Ryan Penny, who recorded the primary assist on the insurance goal scored by Matt Wilkins on Wednesday, has four assists (0g-4a) in his last four games.

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Defenseman Florian Iberer recorded his third multi-point performance of the season on Wednesday (0g-2a) when he picked up assists on the third-period game-tying goal by Nick Luukko and the game winner by Ian Watters.

Iberer leads all defensemen on the Royals with twelve points (3g-9a), which places him tied for ninth in scoring amongst defensemen in the league.

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Tyrell Goulbourne, who recorded an assist on the insurance goal by Matt Wilkins on Wednesday, engaged in his first fight as Royal when he took on Ryan Segalla of the Wheeling Nailers 18:05 into the second period (with the Royals trailing 2-1) that night.

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Goaltender Mark Dekanich made 29 saves on Wednesday to record his sixth win of the year. Dekanich, who is currently riding three game winning streak and a four game unbeaten streak (3-0-1-0), is third in the league in minutes played (812) and saves made (401).

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Reading went one for four on the power play on Wednesday. Over the last seven games, Reading has gone three for twenty-three with the man advantage, which is a 13.0% scoring ratio. Overall, the team is scoring power play goals at a 19.7% clip (14 - 71).

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The Royals' penalty killers blanked the Wheeling power play on three chances with the man advantage on Wednesday. That marked the fifth time this season that the PK has held the opposition off the board-four of which have come in the last six played-and the team has gone 4-1-0-0 in those games. Reading has allowed two power play goals against in the last twenty chances for the opposition over a span of seven games (90.0%).

RECENT TRANSACTIONS 11/28/16 Delete Martin Ouellette (g) Recalled to Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL) Add Miles Liberati (d) Returned from Bereavement Leave

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3 (@ 7:15 PM) @ NORFOLK ADMIRALS @ THE SCOPE ARENA - NORFOLK, VA

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