ECHL Reading Royals

The Royal Road Ahead: Reading Royals at Greenville Swamp Rabbits

Published on December 16, 2016 under 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. 26: 14 - 9 - 1 - 1 = 30 (3, NORTH) Road Game No. 17: 8 - 6 - 1 - 1 GRN Game No. 25: 13 - 9 - 2 - 0 = 28 (3, SOUTH) Home Game No. 12: 5 - 4 - 2 - 0

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

NEXT GAME BETWEEN READING AND GREENVILLE Wednesday, February 22, 2016 SANTANDER ARENA - READING, PA @ 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 take on the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in the back-end of a two-game set, which began last night with a 2-1 win for the Swamp Rabbits over the Royals at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville. o

This is the final game of the 2016-17 regular season for the Royals here in Greenville. Reading will face the Swamp Rabbits two more times this season-both at Santander Arena in Reading on Wednesday, February 22, and again on Sunday, February 26.

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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

Overall, the Royals have played the Road Warriors / Swamp Rabbits twenty-one times and compiled a record of 11-7-0-3, going 6-4-0-3 in Reading and 5-3-0-0 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 to this ECHL 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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Last night's 2-1 loss to the Swamp Rabbits snapped Reading's 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.

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The Royals record currently stands at five games over .500 (14-9-1-1=30) through twenty-five games of the seventy-two game regular season. Despite last night's loss, the Royals remain in third place in the North Division-one point behind the Adirondack Thunder and one point ahead of the Brampton Beast.

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Tonight's game is the seventeenth road game of the season for the Royals, who have gone 8-6-1-1 so far away from Santander Arena in Reading. o

The Royals will reach the half-way mark of the away schedule on Tuesday (December 20) when the team will travel to Glenns Falls, New York to face the Adirondack Thunder for the first time this season.

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This game against the Swamp Rabbits is the eighth of what will be twenty games for the Royals in the regular season against teams from the South Division. So far, Reading has gone 4-3-0-0 against teams from the South with three more 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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Last night's game marked the sixth time this season that Reading's offense was held to a season-low one goal (0- 6-0-0). It was the second time this year that the Royals were defeated by a score of 2-1. o

The last time that occurred was on November 18 against the Manchester Monarchs-which was also the last regulation loss suffered by the Royals before the team ran off the nine game unbeaten streak.

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Reading struck first in last night's game 4:58 into the first period. That marked the eleventh time this season that Reading has scored the game's first goal, and the team has compiled a record of 7-3-1-0 in those games-and 5- 2-1-0 on the road. o

The Swamp Rabbits bounced back with a pair of first period short-handed goals to take last night's game, which proved to be the sixth "blown-lead loss" of the year for Reading.

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The 2-1 loss for the Royals last night dropped the team's record to 5-3-1-1 in the ten games decided by a one-goal differential. Reading is 5-2-1-1 in one-goal games on the road.

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Reading was unable to bag the equalizer in last night's game despite generating nineteen third period shots, which are the most shots taken by the team in any period played so far this year.

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The Royals power play was blanked in five chances with the man advantage last night, which included two separate sequences of five-on-three (1:03 and 0:40 in length). o

Last night's game marked the twelfth time this year that Reading's power play was held off the board. The team has gone 5-6-1-0 in those games. o

Not only was the Royals' power play held off the board, but the PP also gave up a pair of short-handed goals against separated by only 3:54-at the 13:34 and 17:28 marks of the first period (both scored by Greenville's Bretton Cameron).

Those were the first two short-handed goals given up all season long by the Royals.

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Reading's penalty killers blanked the Swamp Rabbits' power play in four chances with the man advantage last night. That is the ninth time this season that the Royals' PK has blanked the opposition (7-2-0-0)-and eight of those games have come in the team's last eleven played. o

Dating back twelve games, Reading's penalty kill has knocked off 33 of the last 36 power play chances for the opponent, which is a 91.7% kill ratio.

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Justin Crandall scored the lone goal for Reading 4:58 into the first period to give the Royals an early lead in last night's game. That goal, which was Crandall's second "first goal" of the season, extended his current point streak to five games (2g-4a). o

Crandall, who led the Royals' attack with five shots on goal last night, played to a plus-one (+1) in the game. Through nineteen games, Crandall is playing plus-seven (+7), which is tied with Ryan Penny for the team lead amongst forwards.

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Defenseman Todd Perry picked up the lone assist on Crandall's goal last night. That was the sixth point of the season for Perry (1g-5a), who played to a plus-one (+1), in his fifteenth game of the year. o

Last night's game was the 149th career game as a Royal for Perry, who has 42 career points (7g-35a) and 203 penalty minutes in his time with Reading.

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Defensemen Derik Johnson played plus-one (+1) in last night's game and currently leads the team in plus-minus at plus-10 (+10) through twenty-five games played.

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Goaltender Mark Dekanich made twenty-three saves in last night's loss, which served to snap his personal seven game win streak-and eight game unbeaten streak. His ten wins (10-6-1-1) are tied fourth in the league. His 2.76 goals against average is eighteenth best in the league. Dekanich, who has started six in a row for Reading (and was the goaltender of record in twelve of the last thirteen played) is second in the ECHL in minutes played (1110); and he is fourth in saves made (541).

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

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20 (@ 6:00 PM) @ ADIRONDACK THUNDER @ GLENNS FALLS CIVIC CENTER - GLENNS FALLS, NY

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