ECHL Reading Royals

Pre-Game Notes: Reading at Evansville IceMen

January 2, 2015 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


ROYALS PRE-GAME NOTES

- This evening, the Royals kick off the Calendar Year 2015 with the third game of the season against the Evansville Icemen at Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. The Royals defeated the Icemen in back-to-back one-goal decisions on December 19 and 20. These two teams only play each other four times this year with the final matchup coming in Evansville later this month (Wednesday, January 28, 2015).

- On Friday, the Icemen announced that the team's head coach Dwight Mullins had been relieved of his duties and that the new head coach and director of hockey operations for Evansville would be Al Sims, who was the first coach in Royals' team history fourteen years ago. Sims served as Reading's head coach during the inaugural 2001-02 season when the Royals went 27-36-9. Reading's Coach Larry Courville played eight games with the Royals under Coach Sims during that season.

- This is the first of what will be ten road games for the Royals during the month of January. Reading will play only four times on home ice during January. After playing the Indy Fuel at Indiana Farmer's Coliseum in Indianapolis, Indiana on Saturday (January 3 @ 7:35 pm Eastern), the Royals return home to face the Wheeling Nailers at Santander Arena on Wednesday, January 7.

- This past Wednesday's match-up with the Elmira Jackals at Santander Arena marked the first time in team history that the Royals have hosted a game on New Year's Eve. It was the fifth time that Reading played a game on the last day of the Calendar Year. The loss to the Jackals on Wednesday dropped the Royals' historical record to 3-2-0-0 on New Year's Eve.

- Reading is coming off the first shut-out loss of the season on Wednesday in Reading, when the team was blanked by the Jackals, 4-0.

- That loss snapped a five game win streak for the Royals. It also put a halt to a four game win streak on home ice that dated back to a 2-0 win over the South Carolina Stingrays in Reading on Sunday, December 7. Wednesday's loss dropped the Royals' record to 9-7-1-0 on home ice.

- Reading is currently riding a season long four game win streak on the road, which dates to a 6-4 win over the Indy Fuel at Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Wednesday, December 17.

- Wednesday's shutout against was the first time this season that Reading's offense has been held off the board. It was the only time that Reading was blanked in seventy-five games played during the Calendar Year 2014. The last shutout against the Royals came on November 23, 2013, when Reading was blanked (3-0) by Michael Hauser of the Cincinnati Cyclones. Wednesday's shutout against marked the thirty-seventh regular season shutout against in the fourteen year history of the Royals.

- The Jackals held the Royals to just 25 shots on goal on Wednesday, marking only the fourth time this year that the team has been limited to twenty-five or fewer shots. Reading is 2-2-0-0 in those games.

- The two teams entered Wednesday's game in a 0-0 tie. That game marked only the second time this year that Reading has entered the third period tied with the opposition and lost in regulation (7-2-1-0).

- The Royals ended the Calendar Year 2014 with a cumulative record of 48-22-2-3. The 48 wins in Calendar Year 2014 tied a team record which was established in Calendar Year 2005, during which Reading compiled a record of 48-19-3-5.

- On Wednesday, the Royals' power play was blanked for the seventh time in the last eight games, the tenth time in the last twelve, and the eleventh time in the last fourteen games played. Over that fourteen game span, Reading's power play has gone 4 for 52 (7.7% scoring ratio).

- Wednesday's loss to Elmira marked the fourth time this year that the Royals' penalty kill has allowed more than one power play goal against in a single game. The last time that Reading did that was when the team gave up three PPGAs in a 4-2 loss to the South Carolina Stingrays at Santander Arena ten games ago (December 6, 2014).

Royals Recent Transactions

12/30/14 Add G Martin Ouellette Loaned from Lehigh Valley (AHL)

12/31/14 Delete G Joe Howe Placed on ECHL Reserve

Add F Kevin Walrod Activated from ECHL Reserve

01/01/15 Delete F Brandon Alderson Recalled to Lehigh Valley (AHL)

Delete D Maxim Lamarche Recalled to Lehigh Valley (AHL)

Add F Ian Watters Activated from ECHL Reserve

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

Reading Royals @ Indy Fuel

@ Indiana Farmers Coliseum - Indianapolis, IN

Saturday, January 3 (7:35 pm Eastern Time)

NEXT UP: The Royals travel back to Indianapolis, Indiana, to face the Indy Fuel at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum on the Indiana State Fairgrounds for the second time this season on Saturday, January 3, @ 7:35 pm.

Please note that the Saturday's game is an internet only broadcast. (Coverage on CBS SportsRadio 1240 am and 98.5 fm in Reading will be pre-empted by NFL Football presented by Westwood One.) Nonetheless, Saturday's game, as with all Royals' road games this season, will be televised live in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on BCTV courtesy of Boscov's Travel and Apple Vacations. Streaming audio is available free of charge on the Royals' website (follow the 'headset' icon); and streaming video is available on a pay-per-view basis through ECHL.TV.

For more information about the Royals, call 610-898-7825 or log onto www.royalshockey.com.

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics



ECHL Stories from January 2, 2015


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