ECHL Reading Royals

Reading Royals Weekly

March 22, 2011 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Help Steph Hackash Kiss the Pig!

The Royals Assistant General Manager, Steph Hackash, wants to Kiss Miss Maycie May (the Pig)-or at least raise money for the Olivet Boys and Girls Club. Become part of her team by bidding on one of the V&M Towing Warm-Up Jerseys prior to the Royals Final Regular Season Game (April 2) For More Details: Contact Royals' Office

TOP NOTES OF THE WEEK

1. The Royals clinched the Atlantic Division Regular Season title with the team's two victories over the Elmira Jackals this past weekend. This marks the second regular season Division Championship for the organization in the ten year history of the Royals. Reading won the 2004-05 North Division Regular Season title.

2. Reading currently leads the ECHL's Eastern Conference with 85 points in the standings. The Royals have forty wins, which is the second most in the league, and twenty regulation losses, which is fewer than any team in the ECHL. Reading's .654 win percentage is tied for the league best (with Alaska).

3. Sunday's 2-0 win over the Elmira Jackals marked the fortieth win of the year for the Royals. This is the third time in team history that the team has won forty or more regular season games. In 2004-05, the Royals won forty-three games; and in 2005-06, the team won forty-two. This year, the fortieth win came in the team's sixty-fifth game of the year (40-20-5), which is the quickest that a Royals' team has ever reached forty wins: 2004-05 (Game Number 67) and 2005-06 (Game Number 66).

4. The eight goals scored by the Jackals in Friday's 8-5 loss for Reading at the Sovereign Center marked the season high for goals against the Royals. That was the tenth time in team history that Reading has allowed eight or more goals against. On Saturday, the Royals team defense allowed just two goals against; and on Sunday, the team (and goaltender Daren Machesney) registered the Royals' fifth shutout of the season. Reading has allowed 198 goals against in 65 games, a 3.05 team gaa (9th).

5. The Royals scored a season high nine goals in Saturday's win over Elmira. It is the third time in team history that Reading has scored nine or more goals in a single game. Over the course of the season, Reading has scored 231 goals, which is a 3.55 goals per game average (third best in the league).

6. Andrew Sarauer registered his second hattrick as a Royal (and third as a pro) in Friday's 8-5 win over Elmira. He is only the second player in team history to have two hattricks as a member of the Royals. On Saturday, Sarauer racked up six points (2g-4a) in Reading's 9-2 win over the Jackals. That is only the second time in team history that a player has registered six points in a single game. The other also came from Andrew Sarauer, who had a 3g-3a game against the Trenton Devils on April 3, 2010. Sarauer assisted on the game winning goal on Sunday to extend his point streak to seven games (9g-5a=14pts). He has twenty-nine points (12g-17a) in his last twenty-one games. All five of Sarauer's goals this week were scored while the team was playing with the man advantage. He leads the Royals with 11 power play goals. Sarauer is tied (with Ben Gordon) for the team lead in points (57), goals (23), and assists (34). He also leads the team in first goals (7) and short-handed goals (3). In 124 games with the Royals over the past two seasons, Sarauer has 120 points (51g-69a), which places him sixth on the all-time scoring list for the Royals.

7. Ben Gordon assisted on the team's first goal of the week to pick up his 140th point as a Royal (in his 121st game with the team over three seasons), making him the team's all-time leading scorer. Gordon's goal in Friday's game was his twenty-third of the season and fifty-third as a Royal, tying him with Brad Rooney and Dany Roussin for the most career goals scored by a Royal. Gordon registered three assists in Saturday's win over Elmira, which was his fifteenth multi-point performance of season. Gordon currently has ninety-one career assists with the Royals, which is five short of Graig Mischler who holds the team record in that category.

8. Ryan Cruthers registered his third consecutive multi-point game in Saturday's win over Elmira. Cruthers leads the Royals with sixteen multi-point performances. He has twenty-five points in his last eighteen games with the Royals. Cruthers is the fifth leading scorer in Royals history with 121 points (42g-79a) in 104 regular season games.

9. Daren Machesney became the sixth goaltender to win a game for Reading this season when he made 32 saves in 34 shots in Reading's 9-2 victory over the Jackals on Saturday. He followed that up with a forty-five save shutout performance in the Atlantic Division clinching win over the Elmira Jackals on Sunday. That was the fifth shut-out of the year for the Royals (by three different goaltenders); and the thirtieth shutout in team history. It was the second most saves ever made in a shutout by a Reading goaltender. (Matt Dalton set that record earlier this year with a 48 save shutout over the Wheeling Nailers.) That was Machesney's first shutout in the ECHL this season, and his third of the year. (He had two with the Worcester Sharks of the AHL.) Machesney has eight career pro shutout performances .

10. The Royals power play scored a season high five times in Saturday's 9-2 win over Elmira (5-10). Reading has scored at least one power play goal in six straight games (and in four of those games scored more than one PPG) (15-36, 41.7% scoring ratio) and 24 of the last 30 games (39-151, 25.8%). Overall this season, the Royals have scored 62 PPG in 299 chances with the man advantage (20.7%) (3rd in the ECHL).

11. Reading's penalty kill has allowed at least one power play goal against in four of the last six games (and allowed more than one in 3 of those games) (8 PPGA in 27 chances, 70.4% kill ratio). Over the course of the season, the PK has allowed 54 PPGA in 308 chances, which is an 82.5% kill ratio-ninth in the league).

CLOSING NOTES

1. Sunday's 2-0 win in Elmira was the Royals nineteenth road win of the year, which is the second most road wins in team history. The 2005-06 team won twenty road games. Reading has five more games to be played away from Sovereign Center.

2. The Royals allowed two goals (or less) in two of the games played this past week. Reading has a record of 26-1-0-1 when allowing two goals or less.

3. Chris Blight is riding a three game point streak (2g-3a). He has registered at least one point in twelve of his last fifteen games with Reading (12g-15a).

4. Denny Urban registered his third multi-point performance (1g-1a) in his sixth game with the team in the Royals' 9-2 win on Saturday. On Sunday, he scored his third goal of the season-and second power play goal in two games-which also proved to be his second game winner of the year.

5. Yannick Riendeau extended his personal goal scoring streak to three games with his first multi-goal performance of the season for Reading (2g-1a) in Reading's win over Elmira on Saturday. It also extended his point streak to four games (4g-2a). Those streaks were snapped on Sunday.

6. The Royals scored the game's first goal in both wins this past week. Reading has scored the game's first goal in 35 of the 65 games the team has played this season and has compiled a record of 26-6-2-1 record in those games (.786 win %).

7. Ian O'Connor engaged in his first pro fight on Saturday against Yannick Tifu.

8. Reading plays the next four consecutive games against teams from the South Division. The Royals have compiled a record of 6-4-1-2 against teams from the South this season.

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics



ECHL Stories from March 22, 2011


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