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ECHL Reading Royals

A Convenient (Moment of) Truth…

January 24, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Not to make light of the concerns so elegantly expressed by our nations' former vice-president regarding our continuing proclivity to heat the earthly atmosphere, over this past week, as a bit of a cold wind blew through the Northeast-actually making it feel like hockey weather-the Royals were able to find some semblance of a warm and fuzzy feeling out on the ice. It started on Friday night, when Reading snapped a three-game cold streak at the Sovereign Center with a 3-0 win over the Trenton Titans. On Saturday, I think the breeze we all felt blowing by us was created by the Charlotte Checkers who clearly had the prevailing winds in their sails, flying around and creating all sorts of consternation for the packed house at the Sovereign Center-not to mention the guys on the ice. Nonetheless, the Royals hunkered down and withstood the hurricane force gales thanks in large part to a 43 stop performance of goaltender, Jeff Pietrasiak, who was able to keep the flame lit through regulation and overtime- and tried to do the same in the shootout; although the Royals' shooters remained in the deep freeze in that portion of the hockey game. On Sunday afternoon, the Royals got a cold slap in the face when the Titans came firing out of the gates with an early power play goal and an edgy physical presence. But the boys weathered that storm, as well; and by the time the clouds parted Reading had extended the team's unbeaten streak to three games. As one of many people genuinely concerned about our planet's 'inconvenient truth,' I have to say that many around here are not displeased with the heat currently emanating from a certain building in downtown Reading.....

TOP TEN NOTES OF THE WEEK

1. The Royals' 3-0 win over the Trenton Titans at the Sovereign Center last Friday snapped a season high three game home losing streak.

2. Reading is currently riding a three game unbeaten streak (2 - 0 - 1). The team's longest unbeaten streak of the season dates back to the first four games of the season, when the Royals went 2 - 0 - 2.

3. The win on Friday against the Titans marked the second shutout of the season for Royals' goaltender, Jeff Pietrasiak, who has played in nineteen of the last twenty games for Reading. Pietrasiak is currently riding a three game unbeaten streak (2 - 0 - 1), which ties his season high for consecutive games without a regulation loss. He's gone 3 - 0 - 0 twice this season: from 12-08 through 12-10 and from 12-15 through 12-21.

4. The 43 saves made by Jeff Pietrasiak on Saturday against Charlotte tied a team season high. Pietrasiak also made 43 saves in the Royals' 3-2 win over the Wheeling Nailers on January 12. Pietrasiak also stopped 6 of the 8 shots he faced in the shootout on Saturday, despite being saddled with his first shootout loss as a pro. Pietrasiak has stopped 11 of the 14 shots he's faced in the shootout this season.

5. The shootout loss to Charlotte on Saturday dropped the Royals' record to 1-5 in the shootout this season. Over the past two seasons, Reading is 3-9 in the shootout; and the Royals have never had a winning record in the history of the team, going 18-32 in the shootout over the first five-plus years of the team. On Saturday, the Royals' shooters went 1 for 8 in their attempts (only James Hiebert shooting fifth scored on his attempt), while the Checkers went 2 for 8. Over the course of the season, Reading shooters have scored five times in 34 shootout attempts (14.7% scoring ratio), while the opponents have scored nine times in the 34 attempts on Royals' goaltenders in the shootout (16.5% scoring ratio).

6. The Royals scored the first goal of the game in Friday's 3-0 win over Trenton and in Saturday's 3-2 shootout loss to Charlotte. The Titans scored first in the Royals' 6-3 win in Trenton on Sunday. Reading has compiled a record of 10 - 2 - 3 when scoring first (and 8 - 16 - 2 when the opponent scores first.

7. In Sunday's 6-3 win in Trenton, the Royals trailed after one period, 3-2. Reading has a record of 5 - 11 - 0 when trailing after one period.

8. John Snowden scored the game's first goal in the 3-0 win over Trenton on Friday night, which also proved to be the game winner. For Snowden, that marked his third game winning goal within a span of his last six games played for the Royals, dating back to the Royals' first in the past two seasons at the Toledo Sports Arena on December 16. (Snowden missed eight games due to injury from December 21 through January 7.)

9. Chris Bala scored two goals (and picked up an assist) in Sunday's win-the team's first goal to tie the game at one and the eventual game winner. For Bala, that proved to be his first game winner of the season, his third multi-goal game, and his eleventh multi-point performance of the season.

10. Greg Hogeboom is currently riding a four game point streak (2g - 2a = 4pts). Hogeboom has picked up at least a point in 31 of the 39 games that he's played for the Royals this season. In his last 58 ECHL games with the Royals, Hogeboom has racked up 78 points (31g - 47a = 78pts)

UNSUNG HERO OF WEEK: Reagan Rome

One could forgive Reagan Rome if his mind was elsewhere when he returned to the Royals' line-up last Friday after a ten game absence. After all, his expectant wife was close to giving birth to their first child, and, quite frankly, that's just one of those things that has a tendency to shake the focus of even the most hardened veterans- in any line of work. But in this week when April and Reagan welcomed their beautiful baby boy, Hudson, to the world, Reagan's teammates certainly welcomed his return to the line-up, as well. In his quiet, calm and controlled way, Reagan added an air of confidence and consistency to the Royals' defense that had itself been shaken a bit of late. To be sure, Reagan picked up a couple of assists in the three games that the Royals played this weekend, but I think it's pretty safe to say that you can't measure what Reagan brings to a line-up in numbers-I simply haven't seen the stat yet that can accurately account for the number of times a defenseman single-handedly breaks up an offensive opportunity or slows a transition rush and allows his teammates to regain their coverages. That's not to say we weren't all rooting for Reagan when he was firing at the empty net on Friday night as he attempted to ice what proved to be a 3-0 shutout victory for Reading; but we're confident that Reagan's priorities are well placed, and he is much more happy to have the healthy delivery of his first little bundle of joy than his first goal of the season anyway-we can all wait on that....

CLOSING NOTES

1. This past Saturday, the Los Angeles Kings, the parent club of the Royals, traded goaltender Ryan Munce to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a fourth round draft pick in 2008. At the time of the trade, Munce, who played in seventeen games with the Royals this season and compiled a record of 5 - 6 - 4 with a 3.30 goals against average and a .884 save percentage, was on assignment to the Manchester Monarchs.

2. With the SOL to Charlotte on Saturday night, the Royals record against team's outside the North Division this season was run to 3 - 1 - 1. Over the past two seasons, the Royals are 12 - 3 - 2 against non-North teams; and over the six year history of the team, Reading has compiled a record of 39 - 12 - 7 against teams from outside their division.

3. In Sunday's 6-3 win over Trenton on Sunday, the Royals went 3 - 8 on the power play, marking the first time since November 3 (5-2 win over Wheeling) that Reading scored three power play goals in one game-a span of 35 games.

4. The Royals power play has been held off the board in 11 of the last 16 games played, scoring 8 goals in 83 chances over that span (a 9.6% scoring ratio). Over the course of the season, Reading is scoring at a ratio of 15.4 % (42 - 272), which is ranked 16th in the ECHL.

5. In Friday's 3-0 win over Trenton, the Royals kept the Titans' power play off the board in 8 chances with the man advantage, marking the eleventh time this season that Reading has blanked the opposition's power play. Over the course of the season, the Royals are killing penalties at a ratio of 82.6% (209 - 253), which is ranked 16th in the ECHL.

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