
Reading Royals (ECHL) Weekly: Raconteur Royale Number
March 7, 2017 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release
LAST WEEK'S GAMES Tuesday February 28, 2017 @ Elmira Jackals Win 4-3* Friday March 3, 2017 v Manchester Monarchs Loss 2-3 Saturday March 4, 2017 v Manchester Monarchs Win 2-1 ot Sunday March 5, 2017 v Norfolk Admirals Win 2-1
*Completion of Suspended Game Begun on February 17, 2017
TEAM RECORD
GP W L OTL SOL PTS WIN % GF GA STREAK Place in Standings Overall 58 34 21 1 2 71 .612 208 168 2-0-0-0 t-2nd North Division Home 30 18 12 0 0 36 .600 110 82 2-0-0-0 Road 28 16 9 1 2 35 .625 98 86 1-0-0-0
THIS WEEK'S GAMES THURSDAY, March 9, 2017 @ Brampton Beast Powerade Center - Brampton, ON (7:15 pm)
FRIDAY, March 10, 2017 @ Brampton Beast Powerade Center - Brampton, ON (7:15 pm)
SATURDAY, March 11, 2017 @ Elmira Jackals First Arena - Elmira, NY (7:05 pm)
Broadcast: Broadcast Begins 30 Minutes Prior to Opening Face-Off With Pre-Game Warm-Up Show
Digital Stream on iHeartRadio Rumba 1340 - Reading Deibler Dental In-Arena Broadcast - 99.3 fm Inside Santander Arena
Road Games Only: BCTV Telecast in Berks County, PA (Comcast Reading Cable Channel 15, Service Electric Cable Channel 19, Comcast Southern Berks Channel 965)
Pay-Per-View Streaming Video at ECHL.TV Weekly Notes
The Royals played in four one-goal decisions last week, winning three of them. The week started by completing the 46:07 remaining in the 'suspended game' that was begun on February 17 at First Arena in Elmira, New York, where Reading closed out the Jackals for a 4-3 win. After dropping a 3-2 decision to the Manchester Monarchs on Friday in Reading, the Royals bounced back to bag back-to-back 2-1 wins over Manchester (in overtime) on Saturday and the Norfolk Admirals on Sunday.
The Royals have compiled a record of 13-9-1-2 in one-goal decisions this season.
After going 3-1-0-0 this past week, the Royals record has climbed back to thirteen games over .500 (34-21- 1-2=71), which places Reading tied for second place in the North Division with fourteen more regular season games to go.
Friday's loss to Manchester extended Reading's home losing streak to three, marking the third time this season that the Royals have lost three in a row at Santander Arena. That streak was snapped in Saturday's 2-1 overtime win over the Monarchs. Reading, who has gone 4-6-0-0 in the last ten games played on home ice, have compiled an overall record of 18-12-0-0 at Santander Arena with six regular season home games to go.
Last Tuesday's win in Elmira pushed Reading's road record to 16-9-1-2 with eight games yet to be played away from Santander Arena-three of which will be played this week, including the first trip of the season to the Powerade Centre in Brampton, Ontario on Thursday and Friday.
Reading went 2-1-0-0 within the North Division this past week to push the team's record to 20-11-1-1 against the North. The twenty wins within the Division leads all of the teams based in the North. Reading has eight more games to be played within the Division, including all three this week-two against Brampton and one against Elmira.
The weekend split with the Manchester Monarchs puts Reading's record at 2-6-1-0 through nine games in the season series. The Royals and Monarchs will face each other one more time this season: on Wednesday, March 22, at Santander Arena.
Last Tuesday's 4-3 win in Elmira pushed Reading's record to 8-1-0-0 against the Jackals with one more game in the ten game season series-this Saturday at First Arena in Elmira.
The 2-1 win over the Norfolk Admirals on Sunday in Reading pushed the Royals' record to 5-9-0-0 against team in the South Division with six more games to go against the South-all against the Admirals against whom Reading has gone 3-2-0-0 so far.
The Royals offense was held to just two goals in all three games played this past weekend, and the team has scored just twenty goals in the last eight games, which is a 2.50 goals per game average- considerably below the 3.76 goals per game average the team had through fifty games.
Currently the Royals goals per game average sits at 3.59, which is ninth best in the league.
Reading held the opponent to just one goal against in each of the two victories the team recorded this past weekend. The Royals have held the opposition to one goal or less eleven times this year (11-0-0-0).
Reading average 2.90 goals against per game, which is fifth best in the league.
The Royals generated forty or more shots in three of the four games played last week-and outshot the opposition in all four games. Reading has had forty or more shots in ten games this year and has compiled a record of 4-6-0-0 in those games.
In the three games played this past weekend, Reading generated a total of 119 shots on goal and scored six times, which is a 5.0% shooting percentage-which is considerably below the team's current average (10.7%) and way below the 11.5% shooting percentage the team had through fifty games.
Reading scored the game's first goal in three of the four games played this week, and the team has now scored first in thirty- two of the fifty-eight games played this season, compiling a record of 24-7-1-0 in those games, which is a .766 win percentage.
In Friday's loss to Manchester, Reading held two leads at 1-0 and 2-1; but failed to claim the two points, which made that game the fourteenth "blown lead loss" of the season for the Royals-four of which have been against the Monarchs.
In Saturday's overtime victory against the Monarchs, the Royals came back from a 1-0 deficit to pull out the victory, making that game the twelfth "come-from- behind win" of the year-and the first time that the Royals came back from a deficit to beat Manchester.
Saturday's 2-1 overtime win over Manchester was the seventh game this season for the Royals that ended regulation time in a tie. That's tied (with the Wichita Thunder) for the second fewest "ties" in the league.
(The Indy Fuel has had just six games end regulation time in a tie.)
Saturday's game marked the 209th time in a total of 1138 regular season games (18.4%) that Reading has played in a game that ended regulation time in a tie. Reading has gone 101- 108 in those games (and 51-51 on home ice).
The 2-1 OT win over Manchester marked the 86th regular season game in team history resolved in overtime. Reading has gone 41-45 in those games (and 20-18 on home ice).
Reading's power play was blanked in three of the four games played this past week and went just 1 for 16 collectively. Over the past thirteen games, the Royals' PP has gone just 5 for 51 (9.8%).
The Royals' penalty killers were touched up for one power play goals against-with 7:50 remaining in Sunday's 2-1 win over Norfolk-with Reading's PK knocking off seven of eight power plays the team faced in the four games this past week.
In the last thirteen games, the Royals have allowed five PPGAs (three in one game-on February 26 against Greenville) in forty chances for the opposition, which is a 87.5 % kill ratio in that time span.
Sunday's win for the Royals marked the 600th game for Head Coach Larry Courville. He is the ninth coach in ECHL history to reach the 600 games plateau. (Wichita's Malcolm Cameron reached the plateau, as well, earlier this season.) However, Courville is only the second coach in league history to coach 600 or more games with one team. (The other was John Brophy, who coached 738 with the Hampton Roads Admirals.)
NOTE: Courville has only been on the Royals' bench for 599 of those games. He was suspended for one game this year: the team's 5- 1 win over the Adirondack Thunder on January 27, 2017, during which Assistant Coach Kirk MacDonald served as the team's coach.
Including the game on January 27, Courville's record stands at 339-208-26-27, which is a .609 win percentage.
Courville's 339 wins are sixth most in league history-three behind Matt Thomas who is currently fifth-(and five ahead of Cameron, who is still actively coaching in the league.)
Robbie Czarnik, who is tied for the team lead in scoring (with Justin Crandall and Chris McCarthy) with forty-seven points, leads the team in shots on goal with 182 in 52 games played. Crandall leads the team in plus-minus, playing plus-23 (+23) through 52 games.
Ryan Penny became the first Royal to reach the twenty-goal plateau this season with his goal on Friday against Manchester- which was the first goal of the game (and his third 'fg' of the year). Penny followed that up by scoring his team leading twenty- first goal of the season when he bagged the overtime game winner in Saturday's 2-1 win over the Monarchs.
That was his first OT GWG as a pro-and his second game winning goal of the week (he also scored the GWG in Tuesday's 4-3 win in Elmira) and his third GWG of the season.
Penny, who has seven goals in his last ten games, is riding a six game point streak (5g-2a=7pts).
Matt Willows, who strung together a four game assist streak (0g-5a) through Friday's 3-2 loss to the Monarchs, scored what proved to be the game winner in Sunday's 2-1 victory over Norfolk. That was his thirteenth goal for the Royals (13g-18a=31pts) in thirty- three games with the team and his second GWG of the season.
Olivier Labelle scored his nineteenth goal of the season to give Reading a 3-0 lead in Tuesday's 4-3 win over Elmira. He also generated a personal season-high eight shots on goal in that game.
Labelle's goal on Tuesday was his all-time career leading 120th goal as a Royal (120g-122a$2, 563 PIMs). On Saturday, when the Royals' all-time leading scorer Ryan Cruthers was inducted into the team's Wall of Honor, Labelle played in his 279th game with the team, pushing him past Cruthers as the all-time leader in that category.
Defenseman Florian Iberer is currently tied ninth in scoring amongst defensemen in the league with 36 points (8g-28a) in fifty- six games with the team.
Mike Pereira put together a four game goal scoring streak, which ties the team season long, through Saturday's 2-1 overtime victory against Manchester. His goal that night tied the game at one 11:48 into the second period. Pereira's power play goal on Friday against the Monarchs (which gave Reading a 2-1 lead 13:59 into the second period) was the team's lone power play goal of the week-and was Pereira's fourth PPG of the season.
In Saturday's 2-1 overtime win, Pereira generated eleven shots on goal, which is the most this year by a Royal-and only one short of the team record jointly held by Bracken Kearns (12/01/07) and Stanislav Galiev (11/28/12).
Matt Wilkins broke an eleven game goal scoring drought when he became the ninth Royal to reach double-digits in goals scored by bagging his tenth of the year-while the team was playing short-handed- 19:01 into the first period of Sunday's 2-1.
Wilkins' goal was the tenth short-handed goal of the year for Reading-and his first SHG as a pro.
Reading's 10 SHGs, which have come off the stick of eight different players, are tied for sixth most in the league.
Defenseman Nick Luukko leads all defensemen on the team in plus-minus at plus-22 (+22) through fifty-six games.
Defenseman Derik Johnson picked up a pair of assists in Tuesday's win over Elmira to record his first multi-point game of the year.
Goaltender Mark Dekanich was the goaltender of record in all three wins this past week and has now won his last five consecutive decisions, dating back to a 6-5 shootout victory over the Adirondack Thunder on February 14.
NOTE: Martin Ouellette actually started the 'suspended game' (which was completed on Tuesday with Dekanich in net) and played the first 13:53 of that game back on February 17 and made all eight saves he was called upon to make; but Dekanich was in net-on Tuesday-when the team scored what proved to be the game winner.
After the back-to-back 2-1 wins this past weekend, Dekanich has now held the opposition to one or fewer goals seven times this year (7-0-0-0).
In the games on Saturday and Sunday, Dekanich stopped 55 of the 57 shots he faced, which translates into a .965 save percentage.
Through 31 games with Reading, Dekanich has compiled a record of 17-10-1-1 with a 2.89 goals against average (which is fourteenth best in the league) and a .912 save percentage.
Goaltender Martin Ouellette made thirty-one saves in Friday's 3-2 loss to the Monarchs. Ouellette, who has been saddled with the loss in the last four games in which he has been the goaltender of record, has compiled a record of 12-11-0-1 with a 2.79 goals against average (tenth best in the league) and a .907 save percentage.
LAST WEEK'S TRANSACTIONS 02/28/17 Add Johnny McInnis (f) Activated from ECHL Reserve List Delete Nick Luukko (d) Placed on ECHL Reserve List 03/03/17 Add Nick Luukko (d) Activated from ECHL Reserve List Delete Nathan Moon (f) Placed on ECHL Reserve List 03/04/17 Add Nathan Moon (f) Activated from ECHL Reserve List Add Maxim Lamarche (d) Activated from ECHL Reserve List Delete Mike Marcou (d) Placed on ECHL Reserve List Delete Travis Jeke (d) Placed on ECHL Reserve List Delete Tyrell Goulbourne (f) Recalled by Philadelphia (NHL) and Reassigned to Lehigh Valley (AHL) 03/05/17 Add Mike Marcou (d) Activated from ECHL Reserve List Delete Todd Perry (d) Placed on ECHL Reserve List
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