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ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Weekly

February 9, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


TOP NOTES OF THE WEEK

1. This week the Royals season long seven game road trip continued-as did a four game winless streak, that is until Reading bagged the team's first overtime win of the season (6-5) in Trenton on Saturday night. Reading finishes out the road trip this week with games in Johnstown (on Friday) and Elmira (on Saturday), retuning to the Sovereign Center on Sunday afternoon (5:05 pm) for the 'Battle of the Badges' match-up against the Trenton Devils.

2. Reading sustained the team's first overtime losses of the season this past week by identical 3-2 scores in Cincinnati (on Tuesday) and Trenton (on Friday). The over- time game winner scored by Ben Gordon of Cincinnati 49 seconds into OT is the third quickest overtime goal ever scored against the Royals. (The quickest belongs to Scott May of Elmira, who scored 46 seconds into OT on December 14, 2007). Jeff Prough's OT GWG on Saturday came with just 24 seconds remaining in OT, which is the fifth latest OT GWG in team history against Reading. (Brad Schell of Gwinnett scored with 12 seconds left in OT to give the Gladiators a 4-3 win on February 17, 2008.)

3. The Royals registered the team's first overtime win of the year on Saturday in Trenton. Patrick Wellar became the twenty-second player in Royals' history to bag a regular season overtime game winner. Only John Morlang and Danny Roussin-both of whom scored two OT GWGs in their career in Reading-have scored more than one regular season OT game winner for the Royals. (Brock Hooton scored two OT GWGs in last year's playoff series against the Elmira Jackals).

4. In each of the first three games played this week, the Royals' offense was held to two goals. Over the course of the season, the Royals' offense has been held to two goals or less in nineteen games and has compiled a record of 0-17-2 in those games. Saturday's six goal outburst for the team tied the regular season high in that cate- gory. (The Royals have scored six goals four different times this year). Overall, the Royals average 2.98 goals scored per game, which is sixteenth in the league.

5. Patrick's Wellar's overtime game winner on Saturday was his first goal of the year for Reading. He also registered his first multi-point game of the year that night, picking up three assists in addition to his OT GWG. That was the first four point game for a Royal this season.

6 Chris Stevens registered his third multi-goal game of the year for Reading in Saturday night's overtime win, tying Kirk MacDonald for the team lead in that category. Stevens also picked up an assist on Saturday to bag his first three point performance of the season for Reading. Stevens has had a total of 8 multi-point games in a total of 27 played for the Royals-and six of those multi-point games have come in his last fourteen played.

7. .Defenseman Tim Branham is currently riding a four game assist streak for Reading (0g-5a). This marks the third time this season that Branham has put together an assist streak four games in length. Branham's 19 points (2g-17a) in thirty-five games establishes a new season high for him, topping his previous high of seventeen points (2g-15a) in 60 total games split between the Johnstown Chiefs (1g-7a=8pts in 30 games) and the Saint John Flames (AHL) (1g-8a=9pts in 30 games).

8.Defenseman Rob LaLonde is currently riding a two game goal scoring streak (2g) and three game point streak (2g-2a=4pts) for Reading. LaLonde has had at least one point in six of his last eight games with the Royals (3g-5a=8pts). All four of LaLonde's goals this season have been scored while Reading has been playing with the man advantage. LaLonde's seventeen points this season (4g-13a=17pts) in twenty-seven ECHL games ties his career high, which was established last year in 43 games with the Royals (8g-9a=17pts) .

9. The Royals tied a team high with three power play goals-including the OT GWG-on Saturday night in Trenton (3-5). The only other time this season that Reading has scored three power play goals in a single game was in the team's 6-2 win over the Idaho Steelheads on November 1, 2008. Both of Reading's goals against Dayton on Wednesday (and one of the two scored against Trenton on Friday) were also scored on the power play. The Royals' PP has scored two or more goals fourteen times this year-and six of those have come in the last fourteen games. Over that fourteen game span, the Royals' PP has only been blanked twice and has gone 19 for 78, which is a 24.4% scoring ratio. Overall, the Royals are 45-257 on the PP (17.5% scoring ratio) (9th in the league).

10. Reading's PK gave up 2 PPGA in the first two games this week, but kept the Devils' PP off the board on Friday (0-4) and Saturday (0-4). Reading has given up more than one PPGA in fourteen of the forty-eight games played so far this season. The Royals' PK has blanked the opposition a total of nine times this season and four of those have come in the team's last fourteen games. Over that time span, the Royals have killed off 68 of 81 power play chances for the opposition, which translates into an 84.0% kill ratio. Overall this year, Reading has allowed 59 PPGA in 284 chances for the opponents (79.2% kill ratio) (20th in the league).

CLOSING NOTES

1. David Nimmo racked up at least one point in each of the four games played by Reading last week (1g-4a). Nimmo, who registered his second multi-point game of the year for Reading on Saturday (0g-2a), has had at least one point in eight of his last ten games played (2g-7a=9pts).

2. Tyler Doig racked up his team leading twelfth multi-point game of the year on Saturday night (1g-1a). Doig is tied (with Brock Hooton) for the team lead with twenty-five assists, fifteen of which have come on the power play.

3. Dinos Stamoulis scored his second goal of the season to tie Tuesday's game in Cincinnati at two with just 5:17 remaining in regulation time. That establishes a new career high for goals in a season for Stamoulis, who has ten points in 47 games with the Royals (2g-8a=10pts). His point and assist totals establish a new career high for him, too.

4. Kyle Hagel scored his seventh goal of the season (and second as a Royal) in Friday's OTL in Cincinnati. This past week Hagel also was involved in two fights and currently leads the ECHL with 25 major penalties. Hagel earned his first call up to the AHL (with the Rochester Americans) on Sunday.

5. In both of the games he played this week (Wednesday in Dayton and Saturday in Trenton), goaltender Michael Ouzas made over 40 saves (41/45) and (40/45). Royals goaltenders have made over forty saves in a single game six times this season, three times by Ouzas, twice by James Reimer, and onces by Danny Taylor. The Royals average giving up 34.77 shots against per game, which is nineteenth in the league in that category.

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics



ECHL Stories from February 9, 2009


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