ECHL ECHL

Offensive Explosion, Stingy Goaltending Give Royals Four Straight Wins

November 15, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Seventeen goals and outstanding play from goaltenders Barry Brust and Cody Rudkowsky has allowed Reading to win four games in a row. The Royals, who began the season 0-5-0 scoring only four goals while being shut out twice, host Peoria on Tuesday and South Carolina on Friday before traveling to Dayton on Sunday.

The Royals, who lead the ECHL in fewest goals allowed with 1.44 per game, got their first win of the season 5-0 on November 7 at Wheeling as rookie goaltender Barry Brust made 16 saves for his first professional shutout and first professional win while rookie center Jeff Miles scored two goals, his first professional goal and first professional point. Under contract to Los Angeles of the National Hockey League, the 21-year-old Brust made 26 saves in a 4-2 win at Wheeling on Thursday while Dan Welch scored the game-winning goal for the second consecutive game. Cody Rudkowsky stepped between the pipes for the next two games, making 26 saves in a 5-0 win against Wheeling on Friday and 14 saves in a 3-0 win against Dayton on Saturday.

Rudkowsky, who has allowed one goal in his last three starts, ranks third in the league in goals-against average (1.22) and save percentage (.952) and is tied for third with two shutouts. Brust ranks fourth in the league in goals-against average (1.26) and save percentage (.944) and is tied for fifth with one shutout.

Rookie left wing Ryan Kinasewich leads the Royals during the winning streak with four assists and six points. After scoring his first professional point and his first professional goal on November 7, the 21-year-old Kinasewich had an assist in the win on Thursday and an assist on Friday and a goal and an assist on Saturday. Kinasewich is second on the team with four assists and six points. Rookie center David Steckel, who was recalled to Manchester of the American Hockey League on Sunday, leads the Royals with nine points and six assists.

Chiefs Play League-High Eight One-Goal Games

Johnstown's 5-2 win against Peoria on Sunday was the first time in nine games that the Chiefs were not involved in a one-goal game. Johnstown is 4-0-5 and has been involved in a league-leading eight one-goal games, going 0-1 in overtime and 0-4 in shootouts.

In the first 132 games of the season, there have been 62 one-goal games including six overtime games and 25 shootouts. Charlotte (4-1-1), Dayton (4-0-0), Pee Dee (4-1-1), South Carolina (4-1-1), Toledo (4-0-3) and Trenton (4-0-1) are tied for the league lead with four one-goal wins each. Gwinnett leads the league with five shootouts (2-3) and the Gladiators are 3-0-3 overall in one-goal games. Dayton is 3-0 in shootouts and leads the league in shootout wins with three.
Charlotte and Columbia are tied for the league lead with two overtime games each. The Checkers are 2-0 in overtime games, winning 3-2 at South Carolina on October 23 and 3-2 at Columbia on October 29. The Inferno is 0-2 in overtime games, losing 3-2 to South Carolina on October 22 and 3-2 to Charlotte on October 29.

Bullies In First In North

Winning four games in a row and going 6-2-1 in its last nine games, Atlantic City has improved to 7-4-1 and moved atop the North Division with 15 points, two points ahead of Trenton (6-1-1) and Toledo (5-2-3). Atlantic City hosts Dayton on Tuesday, Wheeling on Friday and South Carolina on Saturday. The Bullies have won their last three home games to improve to 3-1-0 at Historic Boardwalk Hall.

Leading the Bullies offensively the last four games has been center Brett Nowak, who has scored two game-winning goals and seven assists. In his second professional season, the 23-year-old Nowak is second on the team and tied for fifth in the league with eight assists while ranking second on the team and tied for seventh in the league with 12 points.

Luke Curtin, who has seven assists in the last four games, leads the league in assists with 13 and is tied for the league scoring lead with 16 points. Jason Notermann, who has five points (4g-1a) in the last four games, is tied for the league lead with three game-winning goals while ranking second in goals with eight and tied for 11th in scoring with 11 points.

Harder Scores In Every Checkers Game

Charlotte's Mike Harder scored five points (1g-4a) in three games last week and has now scored a point in all nine of the Checkers games, the longest scoring streak in the league this season. Harder is tied for second in the league with nine assists and tied for fourth in scoring with 13 points.

After not scoring in the season opener on October 22 at Long Beach, San Diego's Darren Clark has scored a point in eight games in a row and has the second longest scoring streak in the ECHL. Clark is tied for seventh in the league with 12 points on a team-leading five goals and seven assists.

Scoring a goal in three consecutive games against Florida last week, Idaho left wing Scott Burt extended his goal-scoring streak to five games, the longest streak in the ECHL this season. Burt has scored five goals during the streak and leads the defending Kelly Cup Champions with six goals and is tied for the team lead in scoring with nine points.

Pensacola's Jordan Krestanovich and Charlotte's Dusty Jamieson each begin the week with a goal-scoring streak of four games. Krestanovich had a pair of goals against Gwinnett on Friday giving him five goals during the streak and seven goals overall, tying him for third in the league with seven goals and seventh in scoring with 12 points. Krestanovich has scored a point in all of Pensacola's games while helping the Ice Pilots to the best start in team history at 6-1-0. Coming off the injured reserve and playing his first game on November 6, Jamieson has scored a goal in each of his first four games and has five points.

Petruk, Balanced Scoring Keep Condors On Top Of West

After seeing its season-opening winning streak end at six games with a 4-3 shootout loss to Toledo on Friday, Bakersfield beat San Diego 4-1 on Saturday to improve to 7-0-1 and first place in the West Division with 15 points, one point ahead of defending Kelly Cup Champion Idaho. The Condors will travel to San Diego on Wednesday and Long Beach on Saturday while hosting Las Vegas on Thursday.

Bakersfield leads the league in scoring (4.38 goals per game), power-play goals (13) and power-play percentage (35.1) while ranking third in fewest-goals allowed with 2.00 per game.

Randy Petruk is 6-0-0 with a goals-against average of 1.83 and a save percentage of .923, tying him for the league lead in wins and ranking him seventh in goals-against average. Yutaka Fukufuji, who is under contract to Manchester of the American Hockey League, is 1-0-1 with a goals-against average of 1.92 and a save percentage of .944, tying him for fourth in the league in save percentage and ranking him ninth in goals-against average.

Offensively there are five players tied for the team scoring lead with nine points, including Guy Dupuis and Luis Tremblay, who are tied for the league lead among defensemen with eight assists and nine points each. Dupuis leads league rookies in assists and is tied with teammate Connor James (4g-5a) for third among league rookies in scoring. The other Condors with nine points are centers Lars Peder Nagel (3g-6a) and Mike Hofstrand (2g-7a). There have been six different players who have scored a game-winning goal for Bakersfield, including Vlad Serov, who is tied for fourth in the league with two game-winning goals.

Sabourin Scoreless Streak Ends At 214:37

A goal by Reading's Jon Francisco at 4:35 of the first period on Thursday ended the scoreless streak of Wheeling's Dany Sabourin at 214:37. Sabourin, who was 4-0-0 with two shutouts during the streak, allowed three goals in the 4-2 loss to Reading. In his next start on Sunday, the 24-year-old Sabourin made 29 saves in a 1-0 win against Peoria, tying him for the league lead with three shutouts. Sabourin is 5-2-0 and ranks second in the league with a goals-against average of 1.07 and a save percentage of .964.

The ECHL record for not allowing a goal is 236:03 by Darryl Paquette of Hampton Roads, who did not allow a goal from March 23-April 2, 1997, including a league record three consecutive shutouts March 25-29, 1997. Trenton's Andrew Allen tied the record for consecutive shutouts with three from February 5-14, 2003 and he had a scoreless streak of 199:40 from February 5-15, 2003.

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