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ECHL Reading Royals

Reading Royals Weekly: Raconteur Royale No. Three

October 31, 2016 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Week Three (October 31, 2016)

LAST WEEK'S GAMES Wednesday October 26, 2016 @ Idaho Steelheads Win 3-2 Friday October 28, 2016 @ Idaho Steelheads SOL 2-3 Saturday October 29, 2016 @ Idaho Steelheads Loss 1-3

TEAM RECORD

GP W L OTL SOL PTS WIN % GF GA STREAK Place in Standings Overall 6 3 2 0 1 7 .583 17 18 0-1-0-1 t-3rd North Division Home 2 1 1 0 0 2 .500 7 7 0-1-0-0 Road 4 2 1 0 1 5 .625 10 11 0-1-0-1

THIS WEEK'S GAMES

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2 @ COLORADO EAGLES Budweiser Events Center - Loveland, CO (9:05 pm Eastern)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4 @ RAPID CITY RUSH Rushmore Plaza Civic Center - Rapid City, SD (9:05 pm Eastern)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5 @ RAPID CITY RUSH Rushmore Plaza Civic Center - Rapid City, SD (9:05 pm Eastern)

Broadcast: Broadcast Begins 30 Minutes Prior to Opening Face-Off With Highmark Blue Shield Pre-Game Warm-Up Show

Digital Stream on iHeartRadio Rumba 1340 - Reading

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

This past week, the Royals kicked off a season-long eight game road trip with three consecutive games against the Idaho Steelheads at CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho, and experienced a different result in each of those three games: (i) winning in come-from-behind fashion, 3-2, on Wednesday; (ii) blowing a third period lead and falling in a shootout on Friday; and (iii) trailing from start to finish in a 3-1 regulation loss on Saturday.

This marks only the second time in team history that the Royals have gone for as long as eight consecutive games on the road. In the 2004-05 season, Reading played eight straight away from home ice in cities as geographically disparate as Toledo, Ohio; Jackson, Mississippi; Lafayette, Louisiana; Beaumont, Texas, and Pensacola, Florida (12/18/04 - 01/04/05). The team had considerable success on that jaunt, running off a record of 6-1-1 in those eight games.

Those three matchups were the only games that Reading is going to play against the Steelheads during the 2016-17 regular season. Historically, Reading and Idaho have faced off six times-five of which have been played in Boise. The Royals have gone 3-2-0-1 against the Steelheads (and 2-2-0-1 in Boise) in the respective histories of the team.

This week the Royals will face the Colorado Eagles (at Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colorado) and Rapid City Rush (at the Rushmore Civic Center Plaza in Rapid City, South Dakota)-two teams that Reading has not previously faced at any point in the history of the club.

In Wednesday's win, the Royals fell behind 2-0 before running off three straight goals to pull out the come-from- behind win in regulation. That marked the second time in just two road games played in which Reading was able to mount a two-goal come-back on the road. (The team completed the same feat on Thursday, October 20, against the Wheeling Nailers).

Reading's first goal on Wednesday was scored by Ryan Penny who is tied for second on the team in scoring with five points (2g-3a). Penny leads the Royals in plus-minus at plus-7 (+7).

The Royals tied the game at two forty-one seconds after Penny got the Royals on the board with the first goal of the season by defenseman Derik Johnson. For Johnson, that was his first goal of the year-and second career goal as a Royal. (He had one goal in 55 games with Reading last season).

Mike Pereira scored the third period tie breaking game winner for Reading. That was the first goal of the season for Pereira, who led all players on the Royals season-ending active roster with nineteen goals in forty-seven games with Reading last season.

Goaltender Martin Ouellette stopped 32 shots to register his second win of the season on Wednesday. For Ouellette that was his 36th career victory as Royal, which is third all-time in career victories for the team behind only Matt Dallton (42) and Cody Rudkowsky (56).

Ouellette's two game win streak was snapped in Saturday's 3-1 loss to the Steelheads. Ouellette's 2.36 goals against average through three games is fourteenth best in the league.

Reading fell behind 1-0 on Friday on a first period five-on-three power play goal by the Steelheads' Anthony Luciani. But the Royals bounced back to tie the game in the second; and Reading took a 2-1 lead with a power play goal of their own early in the third. Idaho, however, responded in kind to tie the game at two shortly thereafter, and the two teams remained tied through regulation time and the five-minute three-on-three overtime, as well. Idaho won the shootout in the fourth round.

Reading's first goal on Friday was scored by defenseman Mike Marcou.

That was Marcou's first goal of the year. Last season he had four goals (and nineteen points) in forty-seven games with Reading. Marcou, who also recorded an assist on the Royals' second goal on Friday to pick up his first multi-point performance of the season (and assisted on the Royals' lone goal on Saturday), has played 117 career games over three seasons with the Royals, and he has recorded a total of fifty-nine points with the team (11g-48a).

Steven Swavely recorded the primary assist on Marcou's goal. That extended a point streak for Swavely to each of the five games that he had played for Reading to that point (2g- 3a). That streak was snapped in Saturday's loss.

Chris McCarthy picked up the secondary assist on Marcou's goal. That was his team leading sixth point of the season (2g-4a).

The Royals power play goal early in the third was scored by Robbie Czarnik. That goal, which broke a string of eight consecutive power play chances without a goal, was Czarnik's first goal of the year. Czarnik led Reading last season with twenty-three goals in fifty-one games before being traded to the Norfolk Admirals on March 8.

Olivier Labelle recorded an assist on Czarnik's PPG. Four (3g-1a) of Labelle's five points so far this season have come on the power play. His three power play goals is still tied for the league lead in that category.

Goaltender Mark Dekanich made a team-season-high 41 saves in sixty- five minutes of hockey-and stopped three of four in the shootout-in Friday's SOL.

Dekanich played in four shootouts last season with the South Carolina Stingrays in the ECHL. He went 2-2 in those games, stopping eight of the fourteen shootout attempts he faced (.571 save percentage).

Friday's game marked the first time this season that the Royals had to go beyond regulation time this year to resolve this game. It was the 203rd time in team history that Reading has ended a regular season game in a tie (out of a total of 1086 played-18.7% of the games played). Overall, the Royals have gone 97-106 in regular season games decided in overtime or the shootout-and on the road have gone 48-55.

Reading has played in 121 games decided in the shootout and has gone 59-62 in those games-and 28-29 on the road.

All four of the Royals' shooters in the skills competition on Friday were stopped: (i) Chris McCarthy; (ii) Kevin Sundher; (iii) Robbie Czarnik; and (iv) Steven Swavely.

Last season (2015-16), the first twelve shootout attempts taken by the Royals were stopped until Yannick Tifu bagged his attempt (shooting first) in a shootout against the Adirondack Thunder on February 27, 2016. The Royals actually won that shootout in the sixth round on a goal by Brandon Alderson. Overall, Reading's shooters went 2-20 in the skills competition for a league worst (and historically team-worst) 10.0% scoring ratio.

Historically, the Royals have scored on 31.77% (190 / 598) of the team's attempts in the shootout.

On Saturday, despite generating a season high forty shots, he Royals were held to a season-low one goal in the 3-1 loss to the Steelheads

Overall, Reading has scored 17 goals in six games played, which translates into a 2.83 goals per game average- seventeenth in the twenty-seven team league. The Royals have only scored 12 goals in the first six games at even strength.

The team's lone goal on Saturday was scored by defenseman Florian Iberer. That was Iberer's first goal as a Royal-and the first goal that he has scored in North America since he scored nine (in thirty-three games) with the Kalamazoo Wings of the now-defunct International Hockey League in the 2007-08 season.

Saturday's goal was Iberer's first in the ECHL since scoring two (in forty-nine games) with the Alaska Aces in the 2006-07 season.

Historically, Iberer has scored 78 goals (and registered has 301 points) in 775 professional hockey games.

With his goal, Iberer became the twelfth different player to score a goal for Reading this season.

After scoring the game's first goal (and winning 6-2) in the season-opening game, the Royals have now gone five consecutive games in which the opposition has scored first. In four of those games, the opponent built a 2-0 lead before Reading got on the board.

After beginning the season 4-7 on the power play, the Royals have gone one for the last sixteen with the man advantage. In the three games against Idaho, Reading went 1-11 on the power play, which included two lengthy five-on-three advantages on which the team did not score.

Overall, the Royals are scoring PPGs at a 21.7% scoring ratio-tied seventh.

The Royals have allowed at least one power play goal in each of the six games the team has played so far this season. In the three games played this past week, the Steelheads went 3-10 on the power play with two of their PPGs coming on five-on-three skater advantages.

Overall, Reading is killing penalties at an 67.9% ratio (9 PPGA in 28 chances), which is twenty-sixth in the league.).

LAST WEEK'S TRANSACTIONS 10/25/16 Add Matt Robertson (f) Signed to ECHL Standard Players Contract and Added to Roster

10/27/16 Add Miles Liberati (f) Activated from ECHL Reserve List Delete Greg Amlong (d) Placed on ECHL Reserve List

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