ECHL Reading Royals

The Royal Road Ahead: Reading Royals at Norfolk Admirals

April 7, 2017 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


The Royal Road Ahead Reading Battles for Playoff Position in Two-Game Weekend Regular Season Finale 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. 71: 39 - 25 - 4 - 2 = 84 (3, NORTH) Road Game No. 35: 19 - 11 - 2 - 2 NOR Game No. 71: 26 - 39 - 5 - 0 = 57 (7, SOUTH) Home Game No. 35: 14 - 16 - 4 - 0

Head-to-Head Game No. 10 of 11 (5 @ REA) (6 @ NOR) REA v NOR: 4 - 4 - 1 - 0

NEXT GAME BETWEEN READING AND NORFOLK Saturday, April 8 @ 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 face the Norfolk Admirals in the front end of a two-game weekend set that will serve to bring the 2016-17 regular season to a close for both teams. o

This marks the tenth matchup of what will be a total of eleven games to be played this season between Reading and Norfolk. So far, the Royals have compiled a record of 4-4-1-0 against the Admirals, who had won five of the last six played between the two teams prior to Wednesday's 6-4 win for the Royals over the Admirals at Santander Arena in Reading. o

This is the second season for the Admirals in the ECHL, and tonight's game will mark nineteenth game between the Reading and Norfolk in the respective histories of the two organizations. So far, Reading has compiled an historical record of 12-4-1-1 against the Admirals; and the Royals have gone 5-2-0-1 in the eight games played here at The Scope Arena, which includes splitting the four games (2-2-0-0) so far played between the two clubs here in Norfolk. -

Wednesday's 6-4 win for the Royals over the Admirals in Reading served to push the Royals record back to fourteen games over .500 at 39-25-4-2=84 and jump Reading over the Manchester Monarchs into third place of the North Division. o

The high-water mark so far for the Royals this season with respect to games over .500 is fifteen, which the team accomplished once: after the sixty-first game of the year at 36-21-2-2.

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Wednesday's win was the twentieth home win of the season for Reading (20-14-1-0), marking the tenth time in the sixteen year history of the Royals that the team has registered twenty or more home wins.

Reading has qualified for playoffs in every season in which the team has won at least 20 home games. o

Reading is currently sitting on nineteen road wins (19-11-2-2). Reading has won twenty or more on the road seven times in the history of the team, including the last six years consecutively. -

The Royals, who have gone 3-1-2-0 in the team's last six games, claimed the fourth and final available playoff spot in the team's 5-3 win over the Wheeling Nailers this past Sunday at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, West Virgina.

This marks the twelfth time in the sixteen year history of the team that Reading has qualified for playoffs-the last eight years consecutively. o

The Royals will finish either second, third or fourth in the North; and depending on the outcome of the various games involving the North Division teams that have clinched a playoff spot, Reading will face either the Adirondack Thunder, Brampton Beast or Manchester Monarchs in the best-of-seven first round North Division Semi-Finals. o

There are various combinations of scenarios which could settle the playoff matchups in the North as early as tonight, depending on the outcome of the games between Adirondack and Elmira; Brampton and Manchester; and Reading and Norfolk. -

Wednesday's 6-4 win over the Admirals marked the debut performance for Head Coach Kirk MacDonald and his assistant Ryan Cruthers. MacDonald took over for Coach Larry Courville who was relieved of his duties as the team's head coach on Monday. -

Reading has scored the game's first goal in the last five consecutive games dating to a 3-2 overtime win against the Adirondack Thunder on March 25. o

Overall this season, Reading has scored the game's first goal thirty-nine times, and the team has compiled a record of 29-8-2-0 in those games, which translates into a .769 win percentage. -

Wednesday's game marked the first time that Reading has scored as many as six goals in a game since the team's 6-2 win over the Brampton Beast on March 10, a span of nine games. Reading has scored six or more goals thirteen times this year and has compiled a record of 11-1-1-0 in those games. -

The 6-4 win over Norfolk marked the first time this season that Reading has given up exactly four goals against and won (1-7-1-0). Reading has gone 3-20-2-0 when giving up four or more this year. -

Going into last Sunday's game in Wheeling, the Royals power play had only scored one goal over a span of eight games (1-22), had been blanked in ten of the prior twelve games (2-39), and had gone only 4 for 57 over a span of seventeen games. o

However, on Sunday, the Royals PP struck for a pair of PPGs (2-3), including the first goal of the game and the third-period tie breaking game winner (both by Olivier Labelle, who leads the Royals with ten PPGs). o

Reading's power play followed that up by notching a pair of PPGs against Norfolk (2-4), including the first goal of the game (by Mike Pereira)-and the team's third period insurance goal by Justin Crandall. o

This marks the first time that Reading has had more than one power play goal in back-to-back games since the opening two games of the season, when Reading's PP went 2-4 against Elmira (10/15) and 2-3 against Wheeling (10/21). -

Wednesday's game marked the fortieth time this year that Reading's penalty killers have blanked the opposition's power play (0-2). The Royals have compiled a record of 23-14-2-1 in those games. o

Over the last sixteen games, the Royals' PK has killed forty of the last forty-five chances with the man advantage for the opposition, which is an 88.9% kill ratio in that span. -

The Royals generated forty-seven shots on goal in Wednesday's win over the Admirals. Fifteen of the sixteen skaters for the team (Adam Brace being the lone exception) had at least one shot on goal, led by Robbie Czarnik who had seven. -

Eleven of the sixteen skaters for Reading were credited with at least one point in Wednesday's win. Five players had multi-point performances: Robbie Czarnik (1g-2a), Mike Pereira (2g-0a), Todd Perry (0g-2a), Ryan Penny (1g- 1a), and Justin Crandall (1g-1a).

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For Czarnik, his multi-point performance on Wednesday (1g-2a) marked the sixteenth time this year that he's registered more than one point in a single game, which leads the team.

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With his three point game on Wednesday, Czarnik became the first Royal this season to reach the sixty- point plateau (23g-37a). Czarnik also leads the team with 224 shots on goal. -

Justin Crandall racked up his fourteenth multi-point game of the year (1g-1a) on Wednesday. He now has fifty-six points (21g-35a) in sixty-four games with the team, surpassing the fifty-five points that he registered in his rookie season with the Royals. Crandall leads the Royals' forwards in plus-minus at plus-19 (+19). -

Olivier Labelle scored his second consecutive game winning goal for the Royals on Wednesday. That was his team- leading fifth GWG of the year-and his twenty-third career game winner as a Royal, which is the all-time team lead in that category. o

Labelle, who is riding a three game point streak (3g-3a=6pts), has 127g-126a=253pts and 575 penalty minutes in 292 career games with the Royals. -

Ryan Penny, who is the only Royal to have played in all 70 games with the team this year, racked up his eleventh multi-point performance of the season (1g-1a) on Wednesday. Penny is second on the team with twenty-four goals scored. -

Florian Iberer is twelfth in scoring amongst defensemen in the league with forty-one points (9g-32a) in sixty-eight games with the Royals this year. -

Steven Swavely, who is riding a three game point streak (2g-2a), has sixteen points (8g-8a) in his last fourteen games. -

Mike Pereira registered his first multi-goal (and eighth multi-point) performance of the year on Wednesday (2g- 0a). Pereira, who has three goals in his last three games, scored the first and second goals of the game on Wednesday. He has scored five "first goals" this season. Over the last two seasons, Pereira has scored thirty seven goals in ninety-four games with the Royals. -

Defenseman Todd Perry, who broke a twenty-four game string without a goal when he bagged a huge game-tying goal late in the second period of Sunday's 5-3 win in Wheeling, registered his third multi-point performance of the season (0g-2a) on Wednesday. -

Michael Huntebrinker, who registered the primary assist on the Royals' fourth goal (by Ryan Penny) on Wednesday, has picked up a helper in each of the team's last two games. -

Goaltender Mark Dekanich made thirty-two saves to record his second consecutive win-and his nineteenth victory of the year-Wednesday in Reading. Dekanich, who has compiled a record of 19-12-3-1, has a 3.08 goals against average (nineteenth in the league) and a .908 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 SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 2017 @ Norfolk Admirals The Scope Arena - Norfolk, VA (7:15 pm)

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