ECHL Reading Royals

Reading Royals Weekly

Published on March 15, 2010 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


No, The Unexpected Sources is not the latest prog rock band to break out of the New Zealand highlands. They're just a group of guys who came through for the Royals this weekend with (perhaps) a somewhat unexpected wellspring of offensive production to help the team earn their only win of the weekend-a 5- 4 shootout victory over the Toledo Walleye in front of a sellout crowd at the Sovereign Center on Saturday night. To be sure it was a group of the expected sources (Olivier La- belle, Andrew Sarauer, and Ryan Cruthers) who scored in the shoot- out to get us the two points. But it was the goals of Chase Watson, Scott Langdon, Jimmy Fraser, and Matt Ward-who between the four of them have a total of 16 goals- that got us there. Now, if they could only put the final touches on that jazz-rock fusion masterpiece-¦.

TOP NOTES OF THE WEEK

1. The Royals made the team's final appearance at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on Friday night, suffering a 7-2 loss to the Chiefs. The Royals won only one game out of the last twelve the team played in Johnstown (1-9-2), dating back to January 27, 2008. The Royals face the Chiefs for the final time in team history this Saturday at the Sovereign Center. Saturday's game will mark the 83rd regular season match-up between Reading and Johnstown, and the Royals have a record of 36-39-7 in the 82 games played so far between these two teams.

2. Friday's loss in Johnstown marked the eighth loss for the Royals in their last nine road games (1-8-0-0). The team, which was four games over.500 (11-7-1-1) out on the road after a 4-2 win in Elmira on January 2, 2010 are currently 12-15-1-1 away from the Sovereign Center. Seven of the Royals' last ten games are going to be played on the opposition's home ice.

3. The seven goals allowed by the Royals last Friday in Johnstown marked the fifth time this season (and the twenty-seventh time in the nine year history of the team) that Reading has allowed seven or more goals against in a game. The Royals' defense also allowed six goals against in Sunday's loss to Elmira, marking the thirteenth time this year that Reading has allowed six or more goals against in a single game. The team has compiled a record of 0-12-0-1 in those games.

4. The Royals defense has not held the opposition to less than three goals since a 3-1 win over Charlotte on January 30, 2010-a span of 18 games. During that time span the team has only held the opposition to less than four goals four times and has allowed five or more goals eight times. Reading's team goals against average is currently 3.92, which is nineteenth in the league.

5. Saturday night the Royals hosted a sellout crowd of 7,160 at the Sovereign Center marking the twenty-seventh sellout in the team's nine year history. It was the first sellout for the Royals since October 21, 2006, a span of 138 regular season home games.

6. Saturday's 5-4 shootout win over the Toledo Walleye at the Sovereign Center extended the Royals' home winning streak to three games. That streak was snapped by the 6-3 loss to the Elmira Jackals at home on Sunday. Despite that loss, the Royals have won seven of their last nine home games, and have compiled a record of 19-12-0-2 at the Sovereign Center this season. The Royals have three more regular season home games to go: (i) Thursday night against the Charlotte Checkers; (ii) Saturday night against the Johnstown Chiefs; and (iii) Saturday, April 3, against the Trenton Devils (the final game of the regular season).

7. Andrew Sarauer picked up a point in all three games played by the Royals last week to extend his personal point streak to eight games (7g-6a=13pts). Sarauer, who scored his third power play goal of the season, to get the Royals on the board early in the second period in Sunday's 6-3 loss to Elmira, has scored at least one goal in six of his last eight games. Sunday's goal was his 19th of the season for Reading, which ties the goal output that he had last season with the Johnstown Chiefs. (15 of his 19 goals this year have come in his last 29 games). Sarauer also scored on his shootout attempt in Saturday's game. He is two-for-two in the shootout this year, which ties him for the league lead in shootout scoring percentage.

8. Ryan Cruthers registered at least one point in all three games played by Reading this past week. Cruthers, who currently leads the Royals with 59 points (16g-43a), scored his team leading seventh power play goal in Johnstown on Friday night. Cruthers has picked up at least one point in eleven of his last twelve games for Reading (5g- 16a=21pts). He is currently tied for fourteenth in the ECHL scoring race.

9. Ben Gordon returned to the Royals for Sunday's game against Elmira after missing nine consecutive games while on loan to the Abbotsford Heat of the AHL. Gordon racked up his team leading 21st multi-point performance of the year when he registered two assists on Sunday. His second assist that day gave him 58 points in 46 games (21g-37a), which tops the total number of points he had in 63 games with the Cincinnati and Reading last year (21g-36a). Gordon has had at least one point in six of his last seven games with Reading (2g-6a=8pts).

10. Friday's game in Johnstown marked the second consecutive game that the Royals had scored on their first two power plays of the night-and the fourth consecutive game that the team had scored on their opening power play opportunity of the game. Although the PP was blanked for the twenty-sixth time this season in Saturday's win over Toledo (0-4), Reading has scored at least one PPG in five of the last six games. Overall the Royals are scoring power play goals at a 16.3% scoring ratio (54-332) (15th).

CLOSING NOTES

1. Saturday's game marked the twelfth time this season that Reading has ended regulation time in a tie with the opposition. The team has a record of 8-4 in ties this season (3-1 in overtime and 5-3 in the shootout), which means that the team has collected 20 of the 24 points that have been available in games that have gone to a tie. That translates to a.833 win percentage in those games, which is the second best record in the league when it comes to games going beyond regulation. Only the Cincinnati Cyclones have had better success than Reading beyond the 60 min- ute mark. (Cincy is 7-3 in ties, which translates into a.850 win percentage).

2. Olivier Labelle, shooting first for the Royals in the shootout on Saturday, scored for the fifth time in seven shootout attempts taken this season. He leads the team in 'shootout goals' this year. Saturday's game marked the third time this season that Labelle shot first in the shootout for Reading-and he's scored on all three of those occasions

3.Steven Kaunisto scored his first pro goal at the 14:31 mark of the third period in Reading's 6-3 loss to Elmira. He is the ninth player to register his first pro goal with Reading this season. (Scott Fletcher, Jimmy Fraser, Scott Langdon, Kyle Laughlin, Yannick Riendeau, Greg Scott, Rob Slaney, and Nick St. Pierre are the others.)

4. Matt Dalton registered his second shootout win of the year on Saturday night, when he stopped three of the five shots he faced-including one on Chris Robert- son shooting fifth for Toledo for the win. Overall, Dalton has stopped 15 of the 21 shootout shots he's faced for Reading this year (.714 save percentage) and has a 2-2 record in the shootout.

5. Defenseman Aaron Brocklehurst has registered at least one point in five of the last six games he's played for the Royals (3g-4a=7pts).

6. Defenseman Scott Langdon scored his fifth goal of the year in Saturday's shoot- out win. On Sunday, he engaged in his team leading twelfth fight of the season on Sunday against Elmira's Chaz Johnson. That ties the total number of tilts that Langdon had last year with Reading when he also led the team in that category.

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