ECHL Reading Royals

The Royal Road Ahead: Reading Royals at Elmira Jackals

Published on January 13, 2017 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


The Royal Road Ahead Reading Kicks Off 2017 Road Schedule with the First of a Pair In Elmira

READING ROYALS @ ELMIRA JACKALS First Arena - Elmira, New York Game Time 7:05 PM et - Royals Broadcast: 6:35 PM et

REA Game No. 34: 19 - 12 - 1 - 1 = 40 (3, NORTH) Road Game No. 19: 9 - 7 - 1 - 1 ELM Game No. 33: 7 - 20 - 5 - 0 = 19 (6, NORTH) Home Game No. 15: 5 - 7 - 2 - 0

Head-to-Head Game No. 4 of 10 (5 @ REA) (5 @ ELM) REA v ELM: 3 - 0 - 0 - 0

NEXT GAME BETWEEN READING AND ELMIRA Saturday, January 14, 2017 FIRST ARENA - ELMIRA, NY @ 7:05 pm

ROYALS BROADCAST

AUDIO: iHeartRadio - Rumba 1340 in Reading

TELEVISION: Royals' Road Games are televised locally in Berks County, Pennsylvania on BCTV, which Can Found at Comcast Reading Cable Channel 15, Service Electric Cable Channel 19, Comcast Southern Berks Channel 965

STREAMING VIDEO: ECHL.TV powered by NeuLion (Pay-Per-View)

ROYALS PRE-GAME NOTES -

Tonight, the Royals kick off a three game set against the Elmira Jackals with the first two in the series-tonight and tomorrow-being played in Elmira, while the teams will close out the trifecta with a Martin Luther King, Jr.

matinee game (1:00 pm) on Monday in Reading. o

This is the fourth game in what will be a total of ten games between the Jackals and Royals. So far, Reading has compiled a record of 3-0-0-0 against Elmira, winning the one matchup played here at First Arena (3-2) on November 25 and taking both games played so far at Santander Arena (6-2) in the season opener for both teams on October 15 and (5-0) on December 28.

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The Jackals joined the ECHL in the 2007-08 season. Over the course of the ten years that Elmira has been part of the ECHL, Reading has compiled a record of 72-44-12 against Elmira in the regular season. o

The two teams have also faced off twice in the post-season with Reading claiming the 2008 North Division Semi-Finals (4-2), and the Jackals knocking off the Royals in the best-of-five 2012 Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals (3-2).

o

Since the 2013-14 season, the Royals have compiled an overall record of 33-9-3-1 in the last forty-six games played against the Jackals. o

Since March 10, 2013, Reading has gone 18-2-2-0 in the last twenty-two games played at First Arena in Elmira.

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The Royals are coming off a 4-3 victory over the Adirondack Thunder last Saturday at Santander Arena in Reading. In that game, the Royals scored first and never trailed, but got what proved to be the game winner on a short- handed goal by Ian Watters 11:15 into the second period.

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Last Saturday's win served to push the Royals' record back to a season-high seven games over .500 (19-12-1- 1@), keeping the team in third place in the North Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference. o

The Royals have compiled a record of 13-4-0-0 in the team's last seventeen games. o

The next seven consecutive games for the Royals are against teams in the North Division. So far, Reading has gone 9-7-1-0 in the seventeen games so far played against teams in the North and have twenty-four more to go within the Division.

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The Royals have scored first in the last six consecutive games and in eight of the last nine played. Overall, Reading has scored first in eighteen of the team's thirty-three games, compiling a record of 12-5-1-0 in those games, which is a .694 save percentage. o

In the past two games played by the Royals, the team has scored nineteen into the game, with Steven Swavely scoring 19 seconds into last Friday's 4-2 loss to the Adirondack Thunder and Ryan Penny bagging the game's first goal 19 seconds into Saturday's 4-3 win over the Thunder. Those are the quickest goals scored by Reading into a game this season.

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After Saturday's win, Reading no longer has a negative goal differential in any of the three periods. The team has played even in the first period (29 goals for - 29 goals against), plus-3 in the second period (41 - 38), and plus-18 in the third period (47 - 29). o

The team's plus-eighteen goal differential in the third period is third best in the league to the Allen Americans (+23) and Fort Wayne Komets (+20).

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The Royals power play has been held off the board in the last ten total chances with the man advantage over the past two games played, getting blanked in back-to-back games against the Adirondack Thunder. o

Reading's power play has been held off the board in fifteen of the thirty-three games played this season, and the team has gone 7-7-1-0 in those games. o

Overall, the Royals' power play is scoring at a 20.2% clip (24 for 119), which is six best in the league.

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The Royals penalty kill has now knocked off 61 of the last 66 power play chances for the opposition (92.4%) dating back twenty games. o

For the first time this season, Reading's penalty kill is killing at above an 80% ratio overall (23 PPGA in 119 chances for the opposition = 80.7%, twenty-first out of the twenty-seven teams in the league). o

Last Saturday, the penalty killers also came up with the team's sixth short-handed goal of the season (tied for sixthg most in the league).

Ian Watters scored the SHG for Reading on Saturday. He is the sixth different player to score a short-handed goal for the Royals this season. The others are: Steven Swavely, Todd Perry, Nick Luukko, Ryan Penny and Justin Crandall.

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Olivier Labelle has amassed 36 PIMs in thirty-three games this season. Labelle has now accrued 539 total penalty minutes with the Royals in 261 career games with the team, tying Malcolm MacMillan, who picked up 539 PIMs in 162 games with the Royals, for the all-time lead in penalty minutes with Reading.

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Justin Crandall pushed his personal point streak to five games (5g-8a=13pts), when he picked up an assist in last Friday's 4-2 loss to Adirondack. Although Crandall was held off the score sheet in Saturday's win, that marked only the third time in the last seventeen games in which he has not picked up at least one point, registering twenty-four points in that time span (9g-15a).

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Although Ryan Penny had his four game point streak (1g-4a=5pts) snapped in Friday's loss, he bounced back to score the team's first goal nineteen seconds into Saturday's win, marking the first time this season that he has scored the game's first goal. o

Penny also picked up the primary assist on Reading's second goal (by Matt Wilkins) on Saturday to register his sixth multi-point performance of the season-second only to Chris McCarthy who has seven multi- point games this year. o

Penny has thirteen points (4g-9a) in his last fourteen games.

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Defenseman Florian Iberer, who leads defensemen on the Royals with seven goals and twenty-one points (tied eleventh amongst d-men in the league), played plus-one in both games this past week and has played even or better in six straight, collectively playing plus-4 (+4) in that time span.

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Matt Willows, who registered the primary assist on the Royals' first goal (by Steven Swavely) nineteen seconds into last Friday's loss, has eight points (3g-5a) (and played to a plus-4) in eleven games with Reading. o

Willows also engaged in his first fight as a Royal (against Adirondack's Dennis Kravchenko) 15:58 into the first period of Saturday's win over the Thunder.

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After missing seven games with the Royals while on recall to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL, Steven Swavely scored nineteen seconds into his return to Reading on Friday. o

On Saturday, Swavely registered his third multi-point performance of the season (0g-2a), which included picking up the only assist on the short-handed game winner by Ian Watters 11:15 into the second period. o

Swavely, who is riding a four game point streak (2g-3a=5pts), has eighteen points (7g-11a) in eighteen games with Reading.

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Defenseman Michael Boivin led the Royals with five shots-which tied his personal season high-in Saturday's win over Adirondack.

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Returning to action after a three-game absence, Matt Wilkins recorded the primary assist on the first goal of the game (by Ryan Penny) in Saturday's win. He followed that up by scoring the team's second goal of the game to notch his second multi-point performance of the season.

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Ian Watters broke a six game goal scoring drought when he scored the Royals' fourth goal while the team was playing short-handed 11:15 into the second period of Saturday's win. That goal proved to be Watter's second game winner in three goals this season. o

Watters' also picked up an assist on Reading's first goal in Saturday's win to register his second multi- point goal of the year. o

The short-handed goal scored by Watters on Saturday was his second SHG as a Royal. He also scored one while the team was playing a man short last year-in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Elmira Jackals on March 29, 2016. o

Watters played in his 162nd game as a Royal (14g-45a=59pts, 188 pims) on Saturday, tying him with Malcolm MacMillan for seventh most in team history. (Next on the list is Rob Lalonde at 168.)

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Derik Johnson played to a minus-1 (-1) in Friday's loss marking the first time in a span of sixteen games that he played to a minus. Johnson, who bounced back to play to a plus-one (+1) in Saturday's win, leads the Royals in plus-minus at plus-13 (+13) in thirty-three games played.

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Goaltender Martin Ouellette, who played his first game for Reading since November 27 (a span of twelve games while on recall to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL), made a personal high thirty-six saves in last Friday's 4- 2 loss to Adirondack. Ouellette is 4-3-0-0 with a 3.27 goals against average and a .889 save percentage in eight games with Reading this year.

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Goaltender Austin Lotz won his second game in two starts with Reading this season when he made thirty-one saves in Saturday's 4-3 victory over Adirondack. Lotz, who is 2-0-0-0 with the Royals (2.50 gaa / .919 save percentage) was recalled to the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL last Monday.

RECENT TRANSACTIONS 01/02/17 Add Steven Swavely (f) Loaned from Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL) Add Maxim Lamarche (d) Loaned from Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL)

01/03/17 Add Martin Ouellette (g) Loaned from Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL)

01/03/17 Delete Robbie Czarnik (f) Placed on ECHL Reserve List

01/02/17 Delete Tyrell Goulbourne (f) Placed on ECHL Reserve List Add Matt Wilkins (f) Activated from ECHL Reserve List

01/09/17 Delete Austin Lotz (g) Recalled to Tucson Roadrunners (AHL)

01/12/17 Delete Drew Fielding (g) Released from ECHL Standard Players Contract

01/13/17 Add Mark Dekanich (g) Activated from 21-Day Injured Reserve Add Robbie Czarnik (f) Activated from ECHL Reserve List

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14 @ ELMIRA JACKALS First Arena - Elmira, NY (7:05 pm)

MONDAY, JANUARY 16 v ELMIRA JACKALS Santander Arena - Reading, PA (1:00 pm)

Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Matinee Buy One Ticket - Get One Free Second in a Series of Four Bobblehead Giveaways: Olivier Labelle Courtesy of Reading Health System

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics

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ECHL Stories from January 13, 2017


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