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ECHL Reading Royals

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

April 8, 2017 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


The Royal Road Ahead Reading Closes 2016-17 Regular Season-and Will Determine First Round Playoff Opponent-In Norfolk

READING ROYALS @ NORFOLK ADMIRALS The Scope Arena - Norfolk, VA Game Time 7:15 PM et - Royals Broadcast: 6:45 PM et

REA Game No. 72: 40 - 25 - 4 - 2 = 86 (t-2, NORTH) Road Game No. 36: 20 - 11 - 2 - 2 NOR Game No. 72: 26 - 39 - 6 - 0 = 57 (7, SOUTH) Home Game No. 36: 14 - 16 - 5 - 0

Head-to-Head Game No. 11 of 11 (5 @ REA) (6 @ NOR) REA v NOR: 5 - 4 - 1 - 0

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 face the Norfolk Admirals in the back-end of a two-game set at The Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia, which is also the final game of the 2016-17 regular season for both Reading and Norfolk. o

Tonight's game marks the eleventh and final matchup of the season between Reading and Norfolk. After last night's 4-3 overtime victory by the Royals over the Admirals at The Scope, Reading has compiled a record of 5-4-1-0 against Norfolk. o

This is the second season for the Admirals in the ECHL, and tonight's game will mark twentieth game between the Reading and Norfolk in the respective histories of the two organizations. So far, Reading has compiled an historical record of 13-4-1-1 against the Admirals; and the Royals have gone 6-2-0-1 in the eight games played here at The Scope Arena, which includes a 3-2-0-0 record this year in the five games so far played between the two clubs here in Norfolk.

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Last night's 4-3 overtime win for the Royals over the Admirals pushed Reading's record to a season-best fifteen games over .500 at 40-25-4-2=86 for the second time this season. o

Reading record was also at fifteen games over .500 sixty-one games into the season at 36-21-2-2. o

The Royalss have won three games in a row and are 4-1-2-0 in the team's last seven. o

Last night's win also served to jump the Royals into a tie for second place (at 86 points) with the Brampton Beast. With respect to playoff positioning, Right now, the Royals hold the first tie-break with respect to the Beast: Reading has registered 39 regulation or overtime wins (ROW), while the Beast have 38 ROW.

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Last night's victory marked the seventh time in the sixteen year history of the Royals that the team has won forty or more regular season games. The Royals have won forty or more in four of the past five seasons-and in five of the last seven. o

The 4-3 OT win last night was also the twentieth road win of the year for Reading (20-11-2-2), who have won twenty or more on the road eight times in team history-the last seven seasons consecutively. o

This season marks the sixth year that the Royals have won twenty or more at home and twenty or more on the road. Reading has accomplished this feat in four of the last five years and five of the last seven.

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Tonight's game-in combination with the matchup between the Brampton Beast and Manchester Monarchs in Brampton, Ontario-will determine the first round North Division Semi-Final Playoff Matchups. o

So far, the only position in the North Division that has been secured is the first seed, which was claimed by the Adirondack Thunder who took the divisional regular season title last night with a 7-1 victory over the Elmira Jackals. o

The Royals could still finish anywhere from second to fourth in the North and could face any one of three teams in the first round playoff matchup: Adirondack, Brampton, or Manchester.

If the Royals do end up in a statistical tie with either Brampton or Manchester at the conclusion of the regular season, Reading currently holds the first tie-break (ROW) with respect to both opponents. -

Reading has 39 ROW; Brampton has 38; and Manchester has 36 (and cannot catch the Royals in ROW regardless of the outcome of tonight's games). -

If Reading and Brampton were to end the regular season with a tie at 39 ROW, the second tie break is goal differential, which currently is led by Reading (+36) over Brampton (+6).

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Reading scored the game's first goal last night 5:20 into the first period. That marked the sixth consecutive game in which the Royals scored the 'FG' and the second consecutive game in which the game's first goal was scored by Mike Pereira, who has now six 'FGs' this season-second on the team to Olivier Labelle (7). o

Overall this season, Reading has scored the game's first goal forty times, and the team has compiled a record of 30-8-2-0 in those games, which translates into a .775 win percentage.

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Although Reading scored first in last night's game, the team fell behind 2-1 4:49 into the second period before mounting what proved to be the team's fifteenth come-from-behind win of the season.

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Last night's game marked the twelfth time this season that Reading has ended regulation time in a tie with the opponent. The Royals have split the results in those twelve games (6-6). o

Nine of the twelve 'ties' for the Royals this season have been resolved in overtime (as opposed to the shootout). Reading has compiled a record of 5-4 in the team's OT games this season. o

Steven Swavely bagged the OT game winner for Reading last night. That was the second consecutive OT GWG for Swavely, who also bagged the decisive goal in the team's overtime win against the Adirondack Thunder on March 25 at Santander Arena in Reading. o

Historically, Reading has played in 91 regular season games that have been resolved in overtime, compiling a record of 43-48 in those games (and 22-28 on the road).

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Reading's power play was held off the board last night (0-2), marking the thirty-ninth time this season that the Royals' PP has been blanked. Reading has compiled a record of (20-16-3-0) when the PP has been held off the board.

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The Royals penalty killers were touched up for two power play goals against last night (2-5), marking the first time since February 26 (a span of sixteen games) that the team's PK has given up more than one PPGA. That was the eighth time this season that Reading's killers have been touched up for more than one power play goal.

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Mike Pereira, who has four goals in his last four games, scored his nineteenth goal of the year 5:20 into the first period to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. For Pereira, that ties the nineteen goals that he bagged last year for Reading. He now has scored thirty-eight goals in ninety-five career regular season games for the Royals.

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Justin Crandall, who leads all forwards on the Royals in plus-minus at plus-20 (+20), bagged his twenty-second goal of the season to re-tie last night's game at two 8:09 into the second period. o

Crandall is riding a three game point streak (2g-2a) and has seven points in his last seven games (3g-4a). o

In 123 career regular season games over the past two-plus seasons with Reading, Crandall has recorded 115 points (40g-75a). He is the sixteenth player in team history to reach the forty career goals plateau for the organization.

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Ryan Penny gave Reading a 3-2 lead with his twenty-fifth goal of the year 14:13 into the second period last night. Penny is the fourteenth different player to record twenty-five or more goals in a single season for the Royals.

(Olivier Labelle has done it three times; and Brad Rooney and Andrew Sarauer did it twice.) o

If Penny, who is riding a three game point streak (2g-2a), plays in tonight's game, he will become the eleventh player in team history to play in all seventy-two regular season games for the Royals.

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Steven Swavely, who bagged his second OT GWG of the year last night, is riding a four game point streak (3g- 2a=5pts). Swavely has seventeen points (9g-8a) in his last fifteen games with Reading.

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Robbie Czarnik registered his team leading seventeenth multi-point game of the year (0g-2a) last night. Czarnik, who leads the Royals with sixty-two points (23g-39a) in sixty-five games, is riding a three game point streak (1g- 5a) and has nine points (1g-8a) in his last seven games. o

Czarnik has 108 points (46g-62a) in 116 career games with the Royals over the last two seasons.

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Nick Luukko led the Royals by playing to a plus-3 in last night's game. Luukko, who picked up an assist on Reading's first goal last night is playing to a collective plus-20 (+20) in sixty-nine games with Reading this season.

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Goaltender Mark Dekanich picked up his second assist of the year when he registered a helper on the overtime game winner by Steven Swavely last night. Dekanich, who has won three in a row for the Royals, became the eighth goaltender in team history to register twenty-or-more wins in a single season (Cody Rudkowsky and Matt Dalton did it twice) with his win: 20-12-3-1. Dekanich has a 3.07 goals against average (eighteenth in the league) and .909 save percentage.

ROYALS RECENT TRANSACTIONS 04/05/17 Add Chase Golightly (d) Activated from ECHL Reserve List Add Mike Pereira (f) Activated from ECHL Reserve List Delete Evan Bloodoff (f) Placed on ECHL Reserve List

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS NORTH DIVISION SEMI-FINALS Best of Seven Playoff Series Opponent - Dates - Times To Be Determined Tonight

End 17 04-08

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