ECHL Reading Royals

The Royal Road Ahead: Reading at South Carolina Stingrays

January 24, 2015 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


ROYALS PRE-GAME NOTES

- Tonight, the Royals kick off a five game road trip over a span of the next eight days that will take the team from North Charleston, SC tonight; to Duluth, Georgia where the team will face the Gwinnett Gladiators for the only time this season tomorrow at 2:05 pm. The Royals then visit the Evansville Icemen for the fourth and final time on Wednesday (January 28). The Royals travel to Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the third time this season on Friday (January 30); and then the team finishes the trip with the first visit of the season to U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio, to face the Cincinnati Cyclones on Saturday (January 31).

- Tonight's game marks the third and final match-up of the regular season between the Royals and Stingrays. The two teams split a two-game set in Reading on December 6 and 7, with South Carolina claiming the first game 4-2 and the Royals bouncing back the next day to win (2-0).

- This marks the thirtieth match-up in team history between the Royals and Stingrays. Reading has compiled an overall record of 13-14-1-1 against South Carolina.

- Reading has only won once at North Charleston Coliseum in the team's fourteen year history. On March 26, 2010, the Royals beat the Stingrays 4-2 on the strength of a 39 save performance of goaltender Matt Dalton (and a third period tie-breaking game winner by defenseman Aaron Brocklehurst).

- Overall, the Royals have a 1-7-1-1 historical record against the Stingrays in the North Charleston Coliseum.

- The Royals come into tonight's game with a record of 23-13-1-1=48, which places the team in third place of the East Division. This marks the second time this season that Reading has reached ten games over .500, which is the high-water mark for the club so far. (The Royals were also ten games over at 20-10-1- 1).

- Reading has won the team's last two consecutive games and has compiled a record of 11-4-0-0 in the last fifteen games; and 14-5-0-0 in the team's last nineteen.

- The Royals last two games-both against the Elmira Jackals-have required come-from-behind efforts to pull out the victory. Reading has had eleven come-back wins this year. But last Saturday's 4-3 shootout win in Elmira marked only the second time this year that Reading has entered the third period trailing the opposition and pulled out the win (2-10-0-0).

- The Royals, who average 3.45 goals per game (eighth best in the league), has scored more goals in the third period (52) than any other team in the league. Reading is playing to a plus-11 (+11) in the third period this season (52 - 41).

- Reading's defense held the Elmira Jackals to two goals in Monday's win on the Martin Luther King, Jr. matinee. The Royals have held the opposition to two goals or less fourteen times this year (14-0-0-0).

- The Royals lead the league with an average of 33.79 shots on goal per game.

- Derek Mathers, who was recalled to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms after Monday's win, engaged in his second fight as a Royal (in three games with the team) in that game. Overall, Reading, who average 10.89 penalty minutes per game (second least in the league), have engaged in seventeen fights this season.

- Reading's power play has scored at least one goal in seven of the last eight games. During that span, the PP has gone nine for thirty-five, which is a 25.7% scoring ratio.

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Over the last four games, Reading's penalty killers have knocked off thirteen of the last fourteen power play chances for the opposition, which is a 92.8% kill ratio during that span.

- Pat Mullane leads the Royals with thirty-seven points (13g-24a) in thirty-eight games, which places him tied for seventeenth in the ECHL scoring race. Mullane, who is three-for-three in the shootout this season-all three of which have proven to be shootout winners, has recorded ten points (2g-8a) in nine games in January.

- Olivier Labelle scored a pair of goals in Monday's win over Elmira and now leads the Royals with fourteen goals. On Monday, he became the tenth different player to record a two-goal game this season for the Royals. After his power play game winner against the Jackals, he also became the sixth player on the team to have multiple GWGs this season. On Monday, Labelle recorded his second three point game of the year (2g-1a)-and sixth multi-point performance this season. He is the all-time leading goal scorer for the Royals with 85 goals (and 161 points) in 194 games with the team.

- Mike Marcou's power play goal on Monday gives him twelve power play points (2g-10) on the season, which is tied with Ryan Cruthers (1g-11a) (who picked up an assist on Marcou's goal) for the team lead in that category. Marcou is currently tied for tenth amongst defensemen in the ECHL with twenty-four points (4g-20a) in 37 games. His ten power play assists is second most among d-men in the league.

- Tonight's game will be the 250th game with the Royals for Ryan Cruthers, who is the team's all-time leading scorer with 252nd points (80g-172a) in his time with the team.

- Maxim Lamarche, who picked up an assist on the third-period tie-breaking game winner by Labelle on Monday, currently leads the team in plus-minus at plus-12 (+12) in thirty-two games.

- Cam Reid, who represented the Royals in the CCM/ECHL All-Star Classic and Skills Competition this past week, fired the second hardest shot (90 mph) in the skills competition in Orlando.

- On Monday, goaltender Connor Knapp, who has won his last two starts, made twenty-seven saves to record his eleventh win of the year, which is tied with Martin Ouellette (currently recalled to Lehigh Valley) for the team lead.

Royals Recent Transactions

01/18/15 Delete G Chris Bourgeios Released as Emergency Back-Up

01/19/15 Add F Derek Mathers Assigned from Lehigh Valley

Add G Matt DiGirolamo Signed to ECHL Contract

01/20/15 Delete F Derek Mathers Recalled to Lehigh Valley (AHL)

Delete G Matt DiGirolamo Released from SPC

01/22/15 Add F Adam Hughesman Returned from Manchester (AHL)

01/23/15 Add G Kenny Reiter Signed to ECHL Contract

Delete D Gentry Zollars Placed on ECHL Reserve List

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

Reading Royals v Gwinnett Gladiators

@ The Arena at Gwinnett Center - Duluth, GA

Sunday, January 25, 2015 (2:05 pm)

NEXT UP: The Royals continue the current five game road trip tomorrow (Sunday, January 25 @ 2:05 pm), when the team travels to The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia, where they will face the Gwinnett Gladiators for the only time this season. Sunday'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 1:35 pm. As with all road games this season, Sunday's game will be televised live locally 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.

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics



ECHL Stories from January 24, 2015


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