Sports stats



ECHL Reading Royals

The Royal Road Ahead: Reading Royals at Norfolk Admirals (Friday,

March 17, 2017 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


The Royal Road Ahead Reading Looks for a Little Luck of the Irish in St. Patrick's Day Matchup in Norfolk

READING ROYALS @ NORFOLK ADMIRALS The Scope Arena - Norfolk, VA Game Time 7:30 PM et - Royals Broadcast: 7:00 PM et

REA Game No. 62: 36 - 21 - 2 - 2 = 76 (1, NORTH) Road Game No. 32: 18 - 9 - 2 - 2 NOR Game No. 61: 22 - 34 - 4 - 0 = 48 (7, SOUTH) Home Game No. 32: 12 - 16 - 3 - 0

Head-to-Head Game No. 6 of 11 (5 @ REA) (6 @ NOR) REA v NOR: 3 - 2 - 0 - 0

NEXT GAME BETWEEN READING AND NORFOLK Saturday, March 18 @ The Scope Arena - Norfolk, VA (7:15 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 Norfolk Admirals for the sixth of what will be eleven regular season games between the two organizations. Six of the final eleven regular season games for the Royals will be against the Admirals. o

This is the third of what will be six total games between the two teams here at The Scope Arena in Norfolk, including tomorrow's game (@ 7:15 pm). The Royals will close out the 2016-17 regular season with a two-game set here at the Scope on April 7 and 8. o

The Royals and Admirals last met up on Sunday, March 5, at Santander Arena in Reading when the Royals defeated Norfolk by a score a 2-1. The two teams were supposed to play one another on this past Tuesday (March 14) at Santander Arena; however, Winter Storm Stella had other ideas and that game was postponed and has been rescheduled for Wednesday, April 5, (@ 7:00 pm) in Reading. o

Four of the final six games for the Royals in the 2016-17 regular season will be against the Admirals-two in Reading (March 31 and April 5) and two in Norfolk (April 7 and April 8).

-

In the team's most recent game, the Royals defeated the Elmira Jackals 4-1 last Saturday in what is expected to be the final game in Royals' team history at First Arena in Elmira, New York. (The Jackals have announced their intention to cease operations and the conclusion of the 2016-17 regular season.)

o

In last Saturday's game, the Royals scored relatively early in the first period; but the Jackals bounced back to tie before Reading pulled away with a pair of goals later in the first period, including what proved to be the game winner by Matt Salhany, who was playing in just his second pro game. o

Shortly after Salhany's goal, Florian Iberer snapped a twenty-fourth goal scoring drought with his ninth of the season, and Robbie Czarnik tacked on a second period shorthanded goal-his second SHG in two games-to extend the team's lead to 4-1. o

Goaltender Martin Ouellette, who was named as the ECHL's CCM / Goaltender of the Week this past week, made twenty-six saves to record his second consecutive win and fourteenth victory of the year.

-

Last Saturday night's win extended the Royals current unbeaten streak to five (4-0-1-0) and served to push Reading's record to a season best fifteen games over .500 for the first time this year. o

Saturday's win also served to keep the Royals in first place in the North Division. Reading jumped into sole possession of first place in the North-for the first time this season-with the team's 6-2 win over the Brampton Beast last Friday in Brampton, Ontario. o

The win in Elmira also served to extend the Royals' road unbeaten streak to four (3-0-1-0).

-

Saturday's 4-1 win for the Royals marked the twelfth time this year that Reading has held the opposition to one goal or less (12-0-0-0).

-

As noted above, Reading's fourth goal on Saturday was scored while the team was playing a man short. The Royals have scored four short-handed goals in the last two games played, including three in last Friday's 6-2 win in Brampton last Friday, and are currently second in the league with fourteen total SHGs scored. o

Eleven different Royals have scored a short-handed goal this season, including Justin Danforth who scored his first goal as a pro (in his second pro game) while the Royals were playing short-handed last Friday. Danforth was loaned to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL on Monday. o

Three Royals have scored two SHGs this year, including Steven Swavely, Todd Perry, and Robbie Czarnik whose shortie last Friday proved to be the game winner in Brampton.

-

In the past ten games, the Royals power play has gone 3 for 40 (7.5%) in the last ten games and 5 for 65 (7.7%) over the last sixteen games.

-

Robbie Czarnik snapped a ten game goal scoring drought with his first short-handed goal of the season 8:48 into the second period of last Friday's 6-2 win in Brampton, which proved to be his team-leading fourth game winning goal of the year. That goal also made Czarnik the third Royal to reach the twenty-goal plateau this season (joining Olivier Labelle and Ryan Penny). o

Czarnik also scored the Royals' fifth goal last Friday to record his fourth multi-goal game and team-leading fourteenth multi-point performance of the season. o

Czarnik scored his second short-handed goal of the year on Saturday in Elmira. That was the team-leading fifty-first point of the year (22g-29a) for Czarnik, who also leads the Royals with 187 shots on goal.

-

Matt Willows has racked up three consecutive multi-point performances (2g-6a), which began with his second multi-goal game of the year (2g-1a) in last Thursday's 7-6 overtime loss in Brampton. o

Willows, who has eleven assists and fourteen points in his last nine games (3g-11a=14pts), picked up three assists in last Friday's 6-2 win over Brampton and two assists in Saturday's 4-1 over Elmira. o

Willows has recorded 39 points (15g-24a) and played plus-11 (+11) in thirty-six games with the Royals.

-

Justin Crandall snapped a fourteen game goal scoring drought when he bagged the first goal of the game in Elmira on Saturday. That was the fifth first goal of the season for Crandall, who leads all forwards on the team in plus- minus at plus-23 (+23).

-

Olivier Labelle racked up back-to-back two goal games in Brampton (4g-1a) last week to push his goal total to a team leading twenty-three through fifty-five games played. Labelle, who played to a plus-4 (+4) in last Thursday's 7-6 OTL, scored his team-leading eighth power play goal of the year that night. o

Labelle, who is the all-time goal scoring leader for the Royals with 124 goals (247 pts) in 283 games with the Royals, has registered over twenty-goals in each of his five seasons with the Royals.

-

Defenseman Florian Iberer snapped a string of twenty-four consecutive games without a goal when bagged Reading's third goal 15:34 into the first period of last Saturday's 4-1 win over Elmira. Iberer is currently tenth amongst defensemen in the league in scoring with thirty-eight points in fifty-nine games with the team.

-

Mike Pereira has nine points (4g-5a) in his last seven games.

-

Evan Bloodoff, who was acquired by the Royals in a trade with the Florida Everblades last Thursday, joined the Royals on Saturday in Elmira and promptly bagged a pair of assists in his first game as a Royal.

-

Defenseman Nick Luukko currently leads the Royals in plus-minus, playing to plus-25 (+25) through fifty-nine games this season.

-

Matt Salhany, who was signed by the Royals last Wednesday after completing his senior season at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, scored his first goal as a pro in his second game with the Royals on Saturday in Elmira.

That goal also proved to be the game winner that night. He is the twentieth different player to score a GWG for the Royals this season.

-

Goaltender Marty Ouellette, who snapped his personal four game losing streak in last Friday's 6-2 win in Brampton, made twenty-six saves on twenty-seven shots in Saturday's 4-1 win in Elmira. Overall last week, Ouellette made sixty saves on sixty-three shots in registering back-to-back wins on Friday and Saturday to earn the CCM / ECHL Goaltender of the Week Award for the first time in his three year pro career. o

In twenty-eight games with the Royals this season, Ouellette has compiled a record of 14-11-0-1, with a 2.69 goals against average (ninth best in the league) and a .911 save percentage.

ROYALS RECENT TRANSACTIONS 03/07/17 Add Justin Danforth (f) Signed to Amateur Tryout Agreement Delete Travis Jeke (d) Released from Standard Players Contract 03/09/17 Add Steve Lebel (f) Signed to Amateur Tryout Agreement Add Matt Salhany (f) Signed to ECHL Standard Players Contract 03/08/17 Acquired Evan Bloodoff (f) Acquired by Trade from Florida Everblades (Mike Marcou) Acquired Adam Brace (f) Acquired by Trade from Florida Everblades (Mike Marcou) Acquired Chase Golightly (d) Acquired by Trade from South Carolina Stingrays (Future Considerations) Delete Mike Marcou (d) Traded to Florida Everblades 03/11/17 Delete Steve Lebel (f) Released from Amateur Tryout Agreement Delete Maxim Lamarche (d) Placed on ECHL Reserve List Add Evan Bloodoff (f) Added to Active Roster Add Chase Golightly (d) Added to Active Roster 03/13/17 Delete Maxim Lamarche (d) Returned on Loan to Lehigh Valley (AHL) Delete Jesper Pettersson (d) Recalled by Philadelphia (NHL) - Reassigned to Lehigh Valley (AHL) Delete Justin Danforth (f) Loaned to Bridgeport Sound Tigers (AHL) 03/14/17 Add Adam Brace (f) Added to Active Roster

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS SATURDAY, March 18, 2017 @ Norfolk Admirals The Scope Arena - Norfolk, VA (7:15 pm)

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics



ECHL Stories from March 17, 2017


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central