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ECHL Reading Royals

Over The Hills And Far Away....

March 17, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Ever since their December 'reunion' concert at 02 in London, Led Zeppelin has been the subject of a seemingly endless spate of rumors of an international tour with purported dates in several major North America venues. Although, to date, these rumors have proven to be unfounded, I hope you'll forgive those of us old enough to remember the last time hurricane Zeppelin swept through our fair villages (back in the Seventies) if a wry smile crosses our collective face. Compared with today's sanitized 'rock' tours "Presented By [add your favorite corporate logo here]," Zeppelin's entourage had all the subtlety of a 'led' balloon (or more accurately perhaps, a television set) dropping off a hotel balcony-from about fourteen stories up. From the moment the band and their mates hit the city limits, they stormed Main Street like the 29th Infantry Division hitting Omaha Beach. From all available reports, the imagery expressed in Zeppelin's Immigrant Song of Vikings driving their ships to new lands and smashing all in their path with the hammer of the gods wasn't too far from the from the truth. This was, after all, the band that darn near made the TV toss an Olympic event. But the fact of the matter was that when curtain dropped and Zeppelin hit the stage, they hit the stage. Led by the incomparable hard-driving pounding pulse of perhaps the greatest rock drummer of all time, the late John Bonham, the electrifying double-neck guitar work of Jimmy Page, and the shrill sounds of the greatest combination of vocalist and poser ever put on the planet (Plant), Zeppelin flat killed live. (The fact that the band had a seemingly endless catalogue of songs from which to draw certainly didn't hurt things, either.) The crowds of adoring fans were so uniformly swept up by the emotion of Zeppelin's live performances that it led Page/Plant to pen the epic song 'The Ocean' as a descriptive metaphor of what they saw from the stage. It seems that despite the trials and tribulations of travel and separation, the collective Zeppelin actually enjoyed hitting the road. Although there are certainly factors that distinguish the road experience for rock bands and professional sports teams (including-hopefully-a substantial reduction in late night pillaging), the fact of the matter is that some teams seem to handle the vagaries of the road better than others. (See e.g., the 2008 Super Bowl Champion New York Giants). For the most part, the Royals, particularly in recent years, have enjoyed considerable success in their travels away from the Sovereign Center. The team (or at least the guys who happen to be on that particular trip) has ordinarily found a way to pull together and pull out critical wins under the pressure cooker of the oppositions' home ice. So it's not surprising that, despite hitting a bit of a pot-hole in the road of late, there doesn't seem to be a sense of panic about the presumed need to win games (playoff and otherwise) on the road. One would simply suggest taking a page from the Zeppelin playbook on this one-enjoy it and leave everything you've got in whatever city you happen to be in at that particular moment-only you might want to leave the TVs in your hotel rooms...

TOP TEN NOTES OF THE WEEK

1. The Royals snapped a season long three game winless streak with the 4-3 win over the Elmira Jackals at the Sovereign Center last Wednesday. That win clinched a spot in the ECHL's 2008 Kelly Cup Playoffs for the Royals, marking the fourth time in five years that Reading has made it to the post season. The Royals extended the team's home winning streak to three games with the 9-3 win over the Wheeling Nailers in Reading on Saturday night.

2. The Royals lost both games played by the team on the road this week: 6-3 in Elmira on Friday and 4-3 in Johnstown on Sunday. The Royals are currently mired in a season long six game road winless streak (0-4-2) (02/27 - 03/16/08). The longest road winless streak in team history is eight games (0-6-2) (12/20/03 - 01/24/04). Reading has not won this season at Elmira's First Arena (0-3-1). The Royals play their fifth and final regular season game in Elmira on Friday. After winning the first three games played this year at the Cambria County Memorial Arena in Johnstown, Reading was unable to win in the team's final two trips to the building (0-1-1).

3. The Royals exploded for a season high nine goals on Saturday against the Wheeling Nailers. That is the highest number of goals that the Royals have scored in a single game since the inaugural season (seven years ago) when Reading defeated the Greensboro Generals at the Sovereign Center 10-3 on January 16, 2002. Eleven different players registered at least a point for the Royals on Saturday night-eight of those players had multi-point performances.

4. Ned Lukacevic registered his first pro hat trick in Saturday's 9-3 victory over Wheeling. That marked Lukacevic's first multi-goal game of the year for Reading and his sixth multi-point performance. By virtue of Lukacevic's three goal outburst, Royals' fan Julie Deam won a $10,000 prize under a special "St. Hat Trick's Day" promotion presented by the Reading Eagle.

5. Shawn Collymore registered at least a point in all four games played by the Royals this past week, which extends his personal point streak to all thirteen games that he's played for the Royals this season (7g-14a=21pts). In Saturday's win, Collymore scored two goals, including his second game winner for the team this year, and picked up an assist to register his fifth multi-point game of the year for the Royals.

6. Scott Parse is currently riding a three game goal (and point) streak (3g-3a=6pts). Parse registered back-to-back multi-point games on Saturday and Sunday. Parse picked up his first three point performance as a pro (1g-2a) in the team's win over Wheeling on Saturday. Parse has racked up four multi-point games in 18 played this season with Reading.

7. Patrick Jarrett is currently riding a three game multi-point streak. On Friday and Saturday, Jarrett racked up back-to-back multi-assist games, registering a pair of assists on Friday and picking up his second three-assist game of the season on Saturday against Wheeling. Jarrett has had nine multi-assist games this season and thirteen multi-point performances in thirty-five played games played with the Royals.

8. Defenseman Steven Later had two multi-point games with the Royals this past week. Last Wednesday, Later assisted on two goals; and on Saturday night, he registered the second four point (1g-3a) performance of his three year pro career. (Later also picked up four points for the Pensacola Ice Pilots on January 11, 2006 in a 5-1 win over the Charlotte Checkers). Later was ejected from Sunday's game 17:40 into the first period when a fight in which he was involved boiled over into the Johnstown Chiefs' bench. The fighting major assessed against Later in that fray was his ninth of the season-five of which have come with Reading.

9. After being held off the board on Wednesday against the Jackals, the Royals power play registered multi-goal performances in three consecutive games this weekend. In those games, the PP scored 8 goals in 22 chances with the man advantage (36.4% scoring ratio). In the last 18 games, the Royals PP has scored more than one goal ten times. Over that time span, the PP has gone 31 for 121 (25.6% scoring ratio). Over the course of the season, Reading is scoring power play goals at a 19.0% ratio (63-374) which is eighth best in the league.

10. The four power play goals allowed on Friday in Elmira tied the team high this season for PPGA. (It was the third time the Royals' PK has given up 4 PPGA). The Royals also gave up two power play goals in Johnstown on Sunday, marking the twentieth time this season that Reading has allowed more than one PPGA. Over the last 11 games the Royals have allowed 14 PPGA in 51 chances for the opponents (72.5% kill ratio). Over the season, Reading is killing at a 80.5% ratio (294-365) (19th in the league).

CLOSING NOTES

1. Goaltender Terry Denike has started eleven consecutive games for the Royals (02/24 - 03/16/08). He has compiled a record of 4-3-2 (and two 'no decisions') with a 3.85 goals against average and an .845 save % in that time span.

2. Vladimir Dravecky scored what proved to be the game winning goal, breaking a 3-3 tie at the 5:48 mark of the third period in Wednesday's win over the Elmira Jackals. That was Dravecky's fourth goal of the season and his first game winner. With that goal, Dravecky became the eighteenth different skater for the Royals to score a game winning goal this season.

3. Brock Hooton scored the Royals' third goal in Wednesday's 4-3 win over Elmira. He also scored a pair of goals in Reading's 9-3 win over Wheeling on Saturday. For Hooton, that marked his third multi-goal game of the season and his thirteenth multi-point game of the season. Hooton has registered thirteen points (7g-6a=13pts) in his last 13 games. Hooton currently leads the Royals in goals (22), assists (32) and points (54).

4. On Wednesday night, Shawn Germain got the Royals (who trailed 2-0 at the time) on the board with his third goal of the season. Germain leads the Royals in the Plus/Minus category, playing to a +16 through fifty seven games this season.

5. Reading broke a string of five consecutive games in which the opposition scored the game's first goal on Saturday night. The Royals also scored the game's first goal in Sunday's loss. The Royals are 23-4-3 when scoring first. 6. Sunday's game marked the first time this season that Reading has held a lead as the team entered the 3rd period (3-2) and lost in regulation. The Royals are 24-1-3 in those circumstances.

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