ECHL Reading Royals

Reading Royals Weekly

Published on April 5, 2010 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


At the risk of heading down the well- worn path of Lennon-McCartney, Page-Plant, Aykroyd-Belushi, and my personal favorite, Bergen- McCarthy, it is uncanny as how the synergy between two people can add up to more than the sum of the separate parts. We saw it again this weekend, when Andrew Sarauer and Daniel Steiner were stirred into the same stew and exploded for 7 goals between the two of them in the Royals' regular season finale. Not that Andy and Daniel haven't been doing it on their own for a while now. Sarauer's twenty-eight goals is the fourth best total in a single season ever for a Royal; and Steiner has averaged some 1.45 points per game in his time in Reading. But when mixed together, it proved a lethal combination rivaling the substances of choice in the recrea- tional excesses of Belushi himself....

TOP NOTES OF THE WEEK

1. The Royals ended the regular season on a two game win streak, were 6-2-0-2 in the team's last ten games, and went 11-5-0-2 in the last eighteen. In the month of March, the Royals compiled a record of 8-5-0-2. The eight wins in March tied a team record, which has been accomplished three times in the nine year history of the team (2004-05: 8-4-2; and 2005-06: 8-6-0).

2. Reading finished the regular season with the fifth best record in team history (37-29-1-5=80), and this marks the fifth time in the nine year history of the team that the Royals have qualified for playoffs. The Royals clinched one of the eight available playoff spots in the American Conference when the team reached 77 points in the stand- ings (with 36 wins) by virtue of earning a tie in Friday night's 7-6 shootout win in Wheeling.

3. The Royals trailed 6-3 entering the third period in Friday night's game against the Nailers. Reading earned the tie in regulation and won in a shootout-marking the first time all season long that the Royals had trailed entering the third period of play on the road and come back to win (1-16-0-0). Overall, Reading compiled a record of 4-27-0 -2 when entering the third period trailing the opposition.

4. The Royals scored a team season high eight goals in Saturday's win over the Trenton Devils. That marked the sixth time in team history that Reading has scored eight or more goals in a single game. Reading scored six or more goals in seven of the team's last seventeen games played-and won each of those games. Over the course of the regular season, Reading compiled a record of 32-2-0-1 when scoring four or more goals.

5. Saturday's game marked the first time in team history that two Royals have registered a hattrick (at least) in a single game, as Daniel Steiner became the third player in team history to score four goals in a single game and the sixth player in team history to register five points in a single game (4g-1a=5pts); and Andrew Sarauer registered the twenty-first hattrick in team history (Steiner's was the twenty-second), and Sarauer became the first player in team history to rack up six points in a single game for Reading (3g-3a). Sarauer's second goal on Saturday was his fourth short-handed goal of the year (tied for 2nd in the league). He led the league with 9 SH points.

6. Ryan Cruthers broke a four game point drought with his nineteenth multi-point game of the year (1g-1a) on Saturday night. Cruthers, who led the team in scoring with 71 points (22g-49a) ended up tied for ninth in the ECHL scoring race. Cruthers' 49 assists is the third most ever in a single season for a Royal; and his 71 points is also the third most ever registered by a player for the Royals. (In 2002-03, Brian McCullough had 95 points; and in 2006-07, Greg Hogeboom picked up 74 points).

7. Saturday's hattrick for Andrew Sarauer was his second as a pro. (He bagged three goals as a member of the Johnstown Chiefs against the Wheeling Nailers on Novem- ber 26, 2008.) His twenty-eight regular season goals is the fourth most ever scored by a Royal. (Brian McCullough: 39, 2002-03; Doug Christiansen, 35, 2005-06; and Greg Hogeboom, 30, 2006-07). Sarauer, who scored sixteen goals over the last eighteen games of the regular season, registered 23 points (12g-11a) in fifteen games in the month of March and scored forty-nine points (24g-25a) over his last thirty-nine games, dating back to January 2, 2010.

8. Daniel Steiner's five point game on Saturday extended his current point streak to three games (5g-3a=8pts). During that stretch he has played to a plus-7 (+7) and led the Royals in plus/minus with a plus-11. Saturday's game marked Steiner's 15th multi-point game in 29 played. His 1.45 points per game average leads the Royals.

9. Stefano Giliati racked up seven points in the final two games of the regular season: (2g-1a @ Wheeling; 0g-4a v Trenton). In his last twenty-five games with the Royals, Giliati registered thirty-seven points (15g-22a).

10. Ben Gordon got at least a point in 14 of his last 17 games with the Royals (5g-14a). He finished the regular season scoring race tied for 12th place (24g-45a=69pts).

11. Matt Dalton picked up his twenty-second win of the year against the Wheeling Nailers on Friday night, which is the fifth highest single season win total for a Royals' goaltender. His forty-six games played tied the team record established by Cody Rudkowsky in 2003-04. Dalton ended up third in the league in total regular season min- utes played (2735), which established a new team record (7 minutes more than Rudkowsky in 03-04) and second in the league in saves made (1524) (also a team record).

CLOSING NOTES

1. The Royals, who finished eight games over .500 in the regular season, lost the team's first two games-the first in regulation to Kalamazoo, the second in a shoot- out to Elmira; but won the third game of the year and did not fall below .500 again all season long. The high-water for the team was 8 games over .500, which the team accomplished on four separate occasions. The Royals ended the season at dead on .500 against teams from the South (7-7-0-3); two games over .500 against teams from the north (8-6-1-1); and six games over .500 against teams from the East (22-16-0-1).

2. Friday's shootout win over Wheeling marked the twentieth one-goal win of the year for Reading. The Royals went 20-5-1-5 in one-goal games this season

3. Daniel Steiner's goal on Friday in Wheeling-the team's fifth of the night to make the score 6-5 Nailers-came 9 seconds after Joey Ryan had cut the Nailers' lead to 6-4. That is the fastest back-to-back goals scored on the road in Reading Royals' history. The previous record was 15 seconds (Dan Riva and Brad Rooney on 12/23/01 in Greensboro). The fastest back-to-back goals at home is seven seconds-both by Ray DiLauro on March 5, 2003 against the Trenton Titans-that night DiLauro actually completed his natural hattrick 33 seconds later to establish the Royals record for the fastest three consecutive goals-all by one player.

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