ECHL Reading Royals

The Royal Road Ahead: Reading at Evansville IceMen

Published on January 28, 2015 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


ROYALS PRE-GAME NOTES

- Tonight, the Royals continue the team's late January five-game road trip with the final game of the regular season against the Evansville Icemen at Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. Reading kicked off the road trip last Saturday with a 2-1 win at North Charleston Coliseum over the South Carolina

Stingrays and followed that up with a 6-3 win at The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia, over the Gwinnett Gladiators.

- After tonight, the Royals will travel to Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis, Indiana, to face the Indy Fuel on Friday (7:35 pm Eastern Time) and will complete the current road trip with the team's first game of the year at U.S. Bank Arena against the Cincinnati Cyclones (7:35 pm Eastern Time).

- This is the fourth and final matchup of the year against the Icemen-all four of which have been played at Ford Center in Evansville. The Royals defeated the Icemen in back-to-back one-goal decisions on December 19 (2-1) and 20 (4-3). On Friday, January 2, the Royals came back from a 1-0 first period deficit defeat to the Icemen (3-1) by virtue back-to-back goals by Adam Hughesman (0:54) and David Marshall (1:39) early in the second period (and a third period insurance goal from Olivier Labelle).

- Historically, the Royals have compiled a record of 10-2-0-1 against the Icemen and have gone 7-1-0-0 at Ford Center with the only loss for the team coming on March 22, 2014 (3-5).

- The Royals are riding a four game win streak and have pushed the team's record to a season high twelve games over .500 (25-13-1-1=52).

- This marks the fifth time this year that Reading has won three or more games in a row. The team's longest win streak extended for five games (12/17 - 12/27/14).

- Reading has won the last three road games played, pushing the team's road record to 13-5-1-0, which translates into a .711 win percentage.

- The next four games for Reading will be against teams from the North Division (Evansville, Indy, Cincinnati and Wheeling). The Royals have compiled a record of 14-7-0-0 against teams from the North with seventeen more games to go against teams from this Division.

- The Royals have scored the game's first goal in the last two consecutive road games. The team has gone 17-4-0-1 when scoring the game's first goal and 8-3-0-0 on the road.

- In the team's last game in Gwinnett, Reading tied the team's season high with six goals scored, which the Royals have now accomplished five separate times.

- Six different players for Reading had multi-point performances in Sunday's win over the Gladiators: Adam Hughesman (2g-0a), Olivier Labelle (1g-1a), Pat Mullane (1g-1a), Maxim Lamarche (1g-1a), Jordan Heywood (0g-2a), and Cam Reid (0g-2a).

- Four of the Royals' goals on Sunday came while the team was playing with the man advantage. That established a new team season-high for power play goals in a single game.

- Reading has scored at least one power play goal in eight of the team's last ten games, going thirteen for forty-three during that time period (30.2% scoring ratio).

- The Royals' penalty killers have kept the opposition's power play off the board in five of the last six games played, knocking off twenty of the last twenty-one power play chances that the team has faced (95.2% kill ratio).

- Reading's penalty killers have blanked the opposition's power play twenty-four times this season, and the team has compiled a record of 18-4-1-1 in those games.

- On Sunday in Gwinnett, Adam Hughesman became the eleventh different player for Reading this season to score two goals in a single game. That was Hughesman's ninth multi-point game of the year.

Hughesman has five goals in his last eight games.

- Pat Mullane recorded his team leading twelfth multi-point game of the season on Sunday in Gwinnett (1g-1a). Five of Mullane's multi-point performances have come in his last eleven games, a span during which he has racked up twelve points (3g-9a). Mullane leads the Royals with thirty-nine points (14g- 37a) in forty games, which places him tied for fourteenth in the ECHL scoring race.

- Olivier Labelle has scored the game winning goal in two of the last three games played. Labelle, who has three game winners this season, has scored more GWGs than any other player in Royals' team history (17). Labelle, who leads the Royals with fifteen goals, now has a team all-time career leading 86 goals in 196 games as a Royal.

- Mike Marcou is currently tied for tenth in defenseman scoring with twenty-five points in thirty-nine games (4g-21a). His twenty-one assists place him second on the team in that category.

- Defenseman Maxim Lamarche is riding a four game point streak (2g-4a=6pts). Lamarche, who leads the Royals in plus-minus at plus-12 (+12), has played even or better in thirty of this thirty-four games with the Royals.

- Matt Hatch is riding a three game point streak (2g-1a). Hatch has six points (5g-1a) in his last eight games.

- Goaltender Connor Knapp is riding a personal three game win streak. He has won seven of his last nine games with the team.

Royals Recent Transactions

01/24/15 Add G Joe Howe Returned from Manchester (AHL)

Delete G Joe Howe Placed on ECHL Reserve List

01/25/15 Add G Joe Howe Activated from ECHL Reserve List

Delete G Joe Howe Traded to Rapid City (ECHL)

01/26/15 Add F David Marshall Returned from Binghamton (AHL)

Add F Kevin Sullivan Acquired from Missouri

01/27/15 Delete F Kevin Sullivan Placed on ECHL Reserve List

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

Reading Royals @ Indy Fuel

@ Indiana Farmers Coliseum - Indianapolis, IN

Friday, January 30 (7:35 pm Eastern Time)

NEXT UP: The Royals continue the team's five game road trip in Indianapolis, Indiana, where they will face the Indy Fuel at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum on the Indiana State Fairgrounds for the third time this season on Saturday, January 30, @ 7:35 pm. Friday's game can be heard live on CBS SportsRadio 1240 am and 98.5 in Reading, Pennsylvania, starting with the pre-game warm-up show presented by Highmark Blue Shield at 7:05 pm Eastern. Friday's game, as with all Royals' road games this season, will be televised live in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on BCTV courtesy of Boscov's Travel and Apple Vacations. Streaming audio is available free of charge on the Royals' website (follow the 'headset' icon); and streaming video is available on a pay-per-view basis through ECHL.TV.




ECHL Stories from January 28, 2015


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