ECHL Reading Royals

Reading Royals Weekly

October 20, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


TOP TEN NOTES OF THE WEEK

1. The Royals kicked off the 2008-09 ECHL season with a 5-2 loss to the Elmira Jackals at First Arena in Elmira, New York. In the eight year history of the Royals, Read- ing has compiled a record of 4-4-0 in season openers. Last year, the Royals lost the first game of the season, 3-2, at Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey. This year marked the seventh time in team history that the Royals have kicked off the season on the road. (The lone exception to that was in 2002-03 when Reading kicked off the year at Sovereign Center with a 7-3 win over the Wheeling Nailers.)

2. On Friday, Elmira scored on their first shot just twelve seconds into the game. That is the quickest goal ever scored against the Royals to start a season. (In the 2002-03 season, Mat Snesrud scored 3:33 into the first period in Reading's 7-3 win over Wheeling on October 11, 2002, marking Reading's quickest goal to start a sea- son.) The quickest goal ever scored against the Royals was bagged by Jean Desrochers of the Johnstown Chiefs who scored 9 seconds into Reading's 4-1 loss to the Chiefs on February 3, 2007.

3. Reading's first goal of the 2008-09 season was scored by Shawn Snider 10:28 into the first period of Friday's loss to Elmira. Snider joins Tommi Degerman (2001-02), Mat Snesrud (2002-03), Jonathan Zion (2003-04), Martin Wilde (2004-05), Mike Pandolfo (2005-06), Jason Becker (2006-07), and Dany Roussin (2007-08) as players who have registered the Royals first goal in a season.

4. Jeff Corey scored his first ECHL goal on Friday in Elmira. It came while the Royals were playing short-handed. Brock Hooton also scored a short-handed goal in the Royals 4-2 win in Trenton on Saturday night. Thus, one-third of the Royals goals this season have been scored while playing a man short (two of six); and the team is currently on pace to score 72 short-handed goals this year. The team high for short-handed goals in a single season was set in 2004-05, when the Royals led the ECHL with sixteen shorties.

5. Brock Hooton's short-handed goal against the Devils on Saturday night marked the seventh goal scored by Hooton in his career with the Royals while the team was playing short-handed. During the regular season last year, Hooton tied for the team lead (with Chris Blight) in SHGs with three. Hooton then went on in the playoffs to score three more short-handed goals, which tied a league record for SHGs in a single post-season.

6. Joe Cooper scored his first goal as a pro in his first game with the Royals on Saturday night to tie the game at two 3:45 into the third period. This marks Cooper's second season in the ECHL, although last season he was limited to 5 regular season and 3 playoff games (thus, he is technically still a 'rookie') with the Columbia Inferno.

7. Dan Rudisuela also bagged his first pro goal on Saturday night. That goal, which was scored at the 9:31 mark of the third period, gave the Royals their first lead of the regular season (3-2) and proved to be the game winner. Rudisuela also registered an assist on Joe Cooper's game tying goal in Trenton, thus giving him his first multi- point performance as a pro-and the first multi-point game of this season for the Royals.

8. Goaltender James Reimer picked up his first win as a pro in his first pro start Saturday night in Trenton. In that game, Reimer stopped 25 of the 27 shots he saw from the Devils (.926 save percentage). Goaltender Danny Taylor played the first game of the season in Elmira, stopping 33 of 37 shots he faced from the Jackals. That game marked Taylor's first game back in First Arena in Elmira, New York, since last year's North Division Semi-Final Match-Up with the Jackals.. Although Taylor lost his first outing in Elmira on April 11, 2008 (in which he stopped 28 of 29 in a 1-0 loss), Taylor came back strong in First Arena, winning Games 3 and 5 in the series and stopping a total of 73 of the 77 shots he saw from the Jackals in those games (.948 save percentage).

9. Saturday's game saw another first: Jason Nobili's first win as a professional hockey head coach-allthough it could be argued that Nobili had already registered a pro win as a head coach when he served in that position on an interim basis for the Florida Everblades during the 2006-07 season (while Head Coach Gerry Fleming was out with an injury).

10. Even though the Royals already have two short-handed goals, the team is yet to register a power play goal, going 0 for 5 with the man advantage in Elmira on Friday and 0-3 on Saturday.

CLOSING NOTES

1 Each of the Royals' six goals scored in the first two games of the season was scored by a different player (Shawn Snider, Jeff Corey, Brock Hooton, Joe Cooper, Dan Rudisuela, and Mac Faulkner) and eleven different players registered at least a point in the first weekend of hockey. Last season, 35 different players scored at least one goal for Reading and 40 guys picked up at least one point.

2. The opposition scored the game's first goal in both of the first two games for Reading this past weekend. Over the course of the team's history, the Royals have compiled a record of 80-153-29 (.361 win percentage) when the opposition scores first

3. The Royals woes in the regular season in Elmira continued on Friday night. Last season, the Royals went winless in their first four regular season tries at First Arena (0-3-1); but finally broke through with a regular season win in Elmira on March 21, 2008, when John Murray stopped all 38 shots he faced in his first pro game to lead the Royals to a 2-0 win over the Jackals.

4. The Royals hold the team's home opener on Saturday night at the Sovereign Center against the Johnstown Chiefs. This marks the first time in team history that the Royals have kicked off the home schedule against the Chiefs. Last year against Johnstown, the Royals compiled an overall record of 5-4-1, but were just 2-3-0 against the Chiefs at home.

5. Sunday's game will mark the fourth time in team history that the Royals have faced the Augusta Lynx. Reading has compiled a record of 2-1-0 against Au- gusta. In the last meeting between these clubs, the Royals defeated the Lynx 5-3 at the Sovereign Center on January 30, 2004.

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics



ECHL Stories from October 20, 2008


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