ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Weekly

Published on February 2, 2009 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


TOP NOTES OF THE WEEK

1. The Royals snapped a two game home losing streak with the 3-1 win over the Wheeling Nailers on Friday night. That game concluded a season-long five game home stand for the Royals, who went 3-2-0 during this stint at home. (Reading also has a five game home stand from February 28 through March 11). The Royals, who have never had a losing record at home during the team's previous seven seasons in Reading, are 7-14-0 at home.

2. Reading kicked off a season long seven game road trip with a 5-3 loss in Johnstown on Saturday night. With that loss, the Royals dropped to 5-6-0 in the month of January. This marked only the second time in the eight year history of the Royals that the team has had losing record in January. (The team went 5-8-1 in January of 2007.) Overall, Reading has compiled a record of 51-39-7 in the month of January.

3. The Royals' loss to Johnstown on Saturday, extended Reading's winless streak to against the Chiefs to eleven games (0-9-2)-dating back to a 4-3 win over Johns- town on February 1, 2008. The Royals, who are 0-6-1 against Johnstown this season, next face the Chiefs on Friday the Thirteenth (February 13) in Johnstown.

4. In the Royals' win over Wheeling on Friday, Reading's defense held the Nailers to just one goal. That is only the third game this season in which the Royals have held the opposition to one goal (or less). Reading is 2-1-0 in those games and has compiled a record of 10-2-0 when holding the opposition to two goals or less. The Royals have a team goals against average of 3.84, which is twenty-second in the league.

5. In Friday's win, Chris Stevens scored the game's first goal while the Royals were on the power play at the 11:36 mark of the first period. That marked Stevens' team leading third 'first goal' of the year. This was the seventeenth time this season that Reading has scored the game's FG and has compiled a 6-9-2 record in those games.

6. Chris Stevens also scored a goal (and picked up an assist) in Saturday's loss in Johnstown, extending Stevens' goal scoring streak to four games. Stevens has racked up three multi-point performances in those four games; and he has registered more than one point in four of his last seven games (6g-3a=9pts).

7. Joe Cooper scored what proved to be the first game winning goal of his pro career at the 14:04 mark of the first period in Friday's win over Wheeling. For Cooper, who scored in his first game as Royal (on October 18 against the Trenton Devils), that goal snapped a twenty-eight game goal scoring drought.

8. Kyle Hagel registered his first multi-point game as a Royal when he picked up a pair of assists in Friday's win. Hagel, who actually had back-to-back multi-point games for the Fresno Falcons in late November, also picked up his league leading twenty-third major penalty of the season when he fought former Royal Jason Payne two seconds into the second period of Friday's game.

9. Goaltender Michael Ouzas made thirty-six stops and picked up his fourteenth win of the season (14-11-1)-and fourth as a Royal (4-5-0)-Friday night against Wheel- ing. That game marked the fifth time this season that Ouzas has held the opposition to one goal or less. Ouzas also played in Reading's 5-3 loss in Johnstown.

10. Brock Hooton, who had his ten game point streak snapped on Friday night (6g-14a=20pts), was awarded his second short-handed penalty shot of the season at the 14:02 mark of the first period Saturday in Johnstown. Although Hooton scored on his earlier SH/PS (November 9 against goaltender David Shantz of Dayton), Johnstown goaltender Kris Mayotte rejected this penalty shot attempt. That marked the fourth penalty shot chance this season for the Royals (2/4) and the tenth PS chance in the eight year history of the team (5/10).

11. Hooton picked up a pair of assists in Saturday's loss in Johnstown. That marked the tenth multi-point game of the year for Hooton-six of which came during the month of January. Hooton leads the Royals with twenty-four assists and thirty-seven points.

12. Dan Rudiseula snapped a nineteen game goal scoring drought when he scored a pair of goals in Saturday's loss in Johnstown. In the last game that Rudisuela scored (December 7, 2008 against the Elmira Jackals), he also scored a pair of goals.

13.The Royals scored a power play goal in each of the two games played this week. Reading has scored at least one power play goal in nine of the last ten games that the team has played, going 13 - 55 with the man advantage over that time span, which is a 23.6% scoring ratio. Over the course of the season, the Royals have scored 39 goals in 234 chances on the power play, which translates into a 16.7% scoring ratio-tenth in the league

14. Reading's penalty kill kept the opposition's power play off the board in both games played this week (12 for 12), which included 1:49 worth of five-on-three for the Johns- town Chiefs on Saturday. The Royals PK has held the opposition's PP off the board eight times this season (and three times in January). Over the course of the season, the Royals PK has allowed 55 PPGA in 261 chances for the opponent's PP, which is a 78.9% kill ratio (twenty-first in the league).

CLOSING NOTES

1. Steve Ward assisted on the Royals' first goal in Friday's win and scored an empty netter with twenty seconds remaining in the game. Ward has registered twenty-two points (6g-16a) in thirty games with the Royals this year, placing him tied for fourteenth amongst defenseman in the ECHL.

2. The Royals were out-shot 37-25 in Friday's game against Wheeling, marking the thirty-first time this season that Reading has been out-shot by the opposi- tion. The team has compiled a record of 11-18-2 in those games. In Saturday's loss, the Royals turned the 'shot-table,' out-shooting the Chiefs, 39-32. The Royals average giving up 34.18 shots against per game, which is nineteenth in the league. Reading averages getting 29.16 shots per game, which is eighteenth in the league.

3. Reading preserved a 2-0 lead entering the third period in Friday's game. The Royals have held onto a lead entering into the third period in all five chances they've had to do that this season at the Sovereign Center. Overall, the Royals are 7-0-0 when entering the third period with a lead this season.

4.The Royals next game is against the Cincinnati Cyclones. The Royals have not faced the Cyclones since November 16, 2008, when Reading beat Cincinnati 5-3 at the Sovereign Center, thirty games ago. The Royals are 2-2-0 against the Cyclones this season (1-1-0 at home and 1-1-0 at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincy).

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