ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Close Gap In North

Published on January 3, 2006 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


The Reading Royals average over four goals per game while winning three times at Stockton and beat Long Beach 6-2 and are 4-0-0 on their seven-game road trip. Reading is 19-6-2 and two points behind leading Wheeling (20-8-2) in the North Division, but the Royals lead the American Conference in winning percentage with .741.

The Royals conclude their trip out west with a game at Las Vegas on Tuesday and conclude their current road trip with games at Johnstown on Friday and Trenton on Saturday.

Reading's Mike Kompon has scored in each of his last 13 games (2g-18a) which is the second-longest scoring streak in the ECHL this season. The second-year pro has scored in 22 of his 25 games and leads the Royals with 27 assists and 35 points while ranking third in the league with 19 power-play points and fourth in the league with 14 power-play assists.

Wheeling has gone 7-2-1 in its last 10 games, including its third five-game winning streak of the season. Rookie Kurtis McLean, who was voted as a starter for the ECHL All-Star Game, ranks second in the league with 40 points and third in goals with 22 while teammate Sean Collins, who was also selected to the American Conference roster for the All-Star Game, is tied for third in the ECHL with 25 assists and 38 points. The Nailers will play at Toledo on Friday before hosting the Storm on Saturday and Trenton on Sunday.

Johnstown has won its last three games to improve to 11-12-7 and move into a tie for fourth place with Toledo (13-10-3). The Chiefs will host Reading on Friday and Dayton on Saturday before visiting the Bombers on Sunday.

Streaking Aces Trio

In addition to the best record in the league, the Alaska Aces currently have the longest individual streaks for goals, assists and points.

Chris Minard has a four-game goal-scoring streak (8g) while defenseman Ryan Gaucher has a seven-game assist streak (14a) and Barrett Heisten has a 14-game scoring streak (8g-14a).

Minard, who led the league with 49 goals last season, has scored 16 goals in his last 11 games and is tied with Idaho's Garett Bembridge for the league lead with 25 goals. Bembridge and Chris Durno of Gwinnett have the longest goal-scoring streaks of the season with six games while Kevin Bergin of Florida, Greg Hogeboom of Reading and Dave Spina of South Carolina each had a five-game goal-scoring streak.

Gaucher, who was voted as a starter for the National Conference in the ECHL All-Star Game, leads ECHL defensemen with 30 points and his 23 assists tie him for the lead with Tom Reimann of Utah, who has a league-high eight-game home assist streak (10a). Daniel Sisca of Florida has the longest-assist steak of the season with 10 games while Mike Kompon of Reading has the second-longest with eight games.

Heisten's 14-game scoring streak is the longest in the league this season and he is tied for third in the league with 38 points (16g-22a) in 28 games. Kompon has scored in each of his last 13 games (2g-18a) tying him with Nicolas Corbeil of Augusta for the second-longest scoring streak of the season.

Alaska, Johnstown Sellouts Help Attendance Rise

Back-to-back sellouts with 6,251 on Dec. 28 and 6,269 on Dec. 30 and 5,884 on Dec. 31 allowed Alaska to increase its average attendance to 4,748 while Johnstown raised its average attendance to 2,425 with a sellout crowd of 3,907 on Dec. 31.

Stockton drew over 17,000 for three games against Reading, including 8,036 on Dec. 30, and the Thunder continue to lead the league with 6,105 per game while Bakersfield ranks second with 5,985 per game, an increase of 577 per game from last season. Florida average over 6,000 for its two games with Gwinnett on Dec. 30 and 31 and the perennial attendance leader increased its average to 5,978.

The average attendance for the league is 4,072 which is the highest average attendance at the same time in the past three years and an increase of 7.76 percent from the first 11 weeks of 2004-05 and up more than 13 percent from the first 11 weeks of 2003-04.

Did You Know ... The most ECHL All-Star Game appearances is seven, by Chris Valicevic (1994 and 1996-2001).

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



ECHL Stories from January 3, 2006


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central