ECHL Reading Royals

The Royal Road Ahead: Reading Royals at Greenville Swamp Rabbits

December 15, 2016 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


READING ROYALS @ GREENVILLE SWAMP RABBITS Bon Secours Wellness Arena - Greenville, South Carolina Game Time 7:00 PM et - Royals Broadcast: 6:30 PM et

REA Game No. 25: 14 - 8 - 1 - 1 = 30 (3, NORTH) Road Game No. 16: 8 - 5 - 1 - 1 GRN Game No. 24: 12 - 9 - 2 - 0 = 26 (3, SOUTH) Home Game No. 11: 4 - 4 - 2 - 0

Head-to-Head Game No. 1 of 4 (2 @ REA) (2 @ GRN) REA v GRN: 0 - 0 - 0 - 0

NEXT GAME BETWEEN READING AND GREENVILLE Friday, December 16, 2016 BON SECOURS WELLNESS ARENA - GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA @ 7:00 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 faced the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in the first of a two-game set, which will conclude tomorrow (7:00 pm) at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville. o

This is the first of four games to be played between the Royals and Swamp Rabbits this season. After the two games played here in Greenville, the two teams will next see each other for two at Santander Arena in Reading on Wednesday, February 22, and again on Sunday, February 26. -

The Swamp Rabbits have been here in Greenville since the 2010-11 season when the team moved from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where they played as the Chiefs for twenty-two seasons from 1988 - 2010. o

When the Chiefs moved to Greenville, the organization originally took the name of "Road Warriors," but the team name was changed to the Swamp Rabbits prior to the start of the 2015-16. o

Last season, the Royals played the Swamp Rabbits four times-all in Reading-and compiled a record of 2- 1-0-1. Overall, the Royals have played the Road Warriors / Swamp Rabbits twenty times and compiled a record of 11-6-0-3, going 6-4-0-3 in Reading and 5-2-0-0 here in Greenville. o

Reading and Greenville matched up once in the playoffs-the best-of-seven 2013 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, which the Royals took four-games-to-one. In that series, Reading's goaltenders posted four shutouts in the games won by the team. After that first round win, the Royals advanced to beat the Florida Everblades (4-3) and Cincinnati Cyclones (4-1) before capturing the 2013 Kelly Cup Championship against the Stockton Thunder (4-1).

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Prior this membership moving to Greenville, the Royals faced the Johnstown Chiefs eighty-three times and compiled an historical record of 37-39-7 against the Chiefs.

Reading faced Johnstown once in the post-season-in the first playoff game ever played by the Royals' organization: a one-game "play-in" known as the Northern Division Wild-Card Game on April 5, 2004, which Reading won 2-1. o

From 1998 - 2006, an ECHL membership known as the Greenville GRRROWL played inside the same arena that now serves as the home for the Swamp Rabbits. During that stretch, the building was known as the BI-LO Center (now Bon Secours Wellness Arena). The Royals played the GRRROWL, who won the 2002 Kelly Cup Championship, five times in the regular season and compiled 4-0-1 record against that organization.

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Reading is currently riding a season-long eight game winning streak and nine game unbeaten streak (8-0-1-0), which began with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Manchester Monarchs in Manchester, New Hampshire on November 19. o

The current eight game win streak is the longest string of victories put together for Reading since the Royals set the team record with twelve consecutive wins notched in the 2014-15 season (January 17 through February 11, 2015). (The Royals actually went fourteen games in a row during that stretch without a sustaining a regulation loss: 13-0-1-0). o

This marks the seventh time in the sixteen year history of the team that the Royals have won eight or more games in a row. Six of those streaks have come during the tenure of Head Coach Larry Courville, which began in January of 2009.

The only win streak exceeding eight games that was not under Coach Courville came in 2004-05, when the Royals won nine straight in regulation from November 7 through November 20, 2004. o

All of the wins in the current streak have come in regulation time. This is only the fourth time in team history that Reading has won eight or more in a row in regulation.

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The Royals record currently stands at a season-best six games over .500 (14-8-1-1=30) through twenty-four games of the seventy-two game regular season-i.e., the first one-third of the 2016-17 regular season-which puts the team in third place in the North Division

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Tonight's game is the sixteenth road game of the season for the Royals, who have gone 8-5-1-1 away from Santander Arena in Reading. o

The Royals have won three in a row on the road and are unbeaten in the last four (3-0-1-0) away games.

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This game against the Swamp Rabbits is the seventh of what will be twenty games for the Royals in the regular season against teams from the South Division. So far, Reading has gone 4-2-0-0 against teams from the South with four to come against the Swamp Rabbits (including tonight), one against the South Carolina Stingrays, and nine more to be played against the Norfolk Admirals.

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During Reading's eight game win streak, eight different players have scored the game winning goal: Jesper Pettersson, Justin Crandall, Tyrell Goulbourne, Ian Watters, Mike Pelech, Olivier Labelle, Florian Iberer, and Michael Boivin. The Royals have now won fourteen total games and twelve different players have scored a GWG for the team, as only Mike Pereira (3) has scored more than one.

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The Royals are coming off a pair of come-from-behind wins over the Indy Fuel last weekend at Santander Arena (8-2 on Friday, December 9; and 3-1 on Saturday, December 10). In fact, the Royals have come back to win in each of the team's last four games played at home-and in eight of the team's fourteen wins this season.

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Last Saturday's 3-1 win marked the third time in a span of the last four played that the Royals have held the opposition to just one goal. o

Over the course of the eight game win streak, Reading has outscored the opposition 33-13 (+20). o

The thirteen goals allowed during the win streak translates into a 1.63 goals against average. In the sixteen games prior to this recent streak of success, Reading's allowed 61 goals against, which translated into a 3.81 team goals against average.

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The Royals have scored at least one power play goal in six of the last eight games played, going 7 - 25 on the power play in that stretch (28.0%).

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Reading's penalty killers have blanked the opposition's power play a total of eight times this season-and seven of those games have come in the team's last ten played. o

Dating back eleven games, Reading's penalty kill has knocked off 29 of the last 32 power play chances for the opponent, which is a 90.6% kill ratio.

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Chris McCarthy, who leads the Royals with twenty-four points in twenty-one games, is riding a seven game point streak (4g-5a). McCarthy, who also leads Reading with five multi-point performances, has picked up at least one point in seventeen of the twenty-one games he's played for the team.

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Olivier Labelle, who has thirteen points (6g-7a) in his last thirteen games, recorded his twenty-second point of the year (11g-11a) when he picked up a helper on Teddy Bear Toss Goal (by Chris McCarthy) last Saturday against Indy. That was Labelle's 223rd point as a Royal (in his 252nd game with the team), jumping him over Yannick Tifu as he is now the second all-time career leading scorer for the Royals.

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Ryan Penny has seven points (2g-5a) in his last eight games.

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Justin Crandall, who is riding a four game point streak (1g-4a), registered his second multi-point game of the year (0g-2a), when he picked up assists on the first two goals scored by Reading in last Saturday's 3-1 win.

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Defenseman Michael Boivin, who is riding a three game point streak (1g-3a), scored his first game winning goal as a Royal when he notched the second period tie-breaker in last Saturday's 3-1 win. Boivin, who has twelve points (2g-10a) in thirteen games with Reading, is playing to a collective plus-seven (+7) in his time with the Royals.

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Defensemen Derik Johnson and Nick Luukko are tied for the team lead in plus-minus at plus-9 (+9).

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Tyrell Goulbourne has four points (2g-2a) in his last six games, during which he has played to a plus-seven (+7).

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Goaltender Mark Dekanich is riding a seven game win streak-and an eight game unbeaten streak (7-0-1-0). His ten wins (10-6-1-1) are tied fourth in the league. His 2.80 goals against average is eighteenth best in the league.

He is second in the ECHL in minutes played (1051); and he is fourth in saves made (518).

RECENT TRANSACTIONS 12/09/16 Add Steven Swavely (f) Loaned from Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL) Add Maxim Lamarche (d) Loaned from Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL) Delete Kevin Sundher (f) Recalled to Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL) Add Matt Wilkins (f) Activated from ECHL Reserve List Delete Mike Pelech (f) Placed on ECHL Reserve List 12/11/16 Delete Steven Swavely (f) Recalled to Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL) Delete Maxim Lamarche (d) Recalled to Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL) Add Kevin Sundher (f) Loaned from Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL) 12/13/16 Delete Mike Pelech (f) Traded to Utah Grizzlies (future considerations) Add Brandon Anderson (g) Signed to ECHL Standard Players Contract Delete Brandon Anderson (g) Traded to Norfolk Admirals (future considerations)

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16 (@ 7:00 PM) @ GREENVILLE SWAMP RABBITS @ BON SECOURS ARENA - GREENVILLE, SC

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics



ECHL Stories from December 15, 2016


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