ECHL Reading Royals

The Royal Road Ahead: Reading V Wheeling Nailers

January 9, 2015 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


ROYALS PRE-GAME NOTES

- Tonight, the Royals take on the Wheeling Nailers for the eighth time of what will be twelve matchups between the two teams over the course of the regular season. Tonight's game completes the back-end of a two game home-and-home set, which kicked off with a 5-2 win for the Royals at Santander Arena in Reading on Wednesday.

- So far, the home team has won every game in the series between the Royals and the Nailers with Reading capturing all four games that have been played at Santander Arena and Wheeling winning the three games that have been played here at WesBanco Arena.

- The Royals victory on Wednesday over the Nailers pushed the team's current win streak to three games (3-0-0-0), marking the fourth time this season Reading has won three or more games in a row. (The season-long win streak to this point of the year stretched for five games: 12/17 - 12/27/14).

- Reading has compiled a record of 8-1-0-0 in the team's last nine games and 11-2-0-0 in the last thirteen.

- Wednesday's win pushed the Royals record to a season-high ten games over .500 (20-10-1-1=42) for the first time this year.

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Reading is currently riding a season-long six game road winning streak, dating back to a 6-4 win over the Indy Fuel on December 17 at Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis, Indiana.

- The Royals have compiled a 10-3-1-0 record on the road so far this season, which translates into a .750 win percentage. All three regulation losses suffered on the road by Reading this season have come at the hands of the Nailers here at WesBanco Arena.

- Wednesday's game in Reading was the team's eighteenth home game of the year for Reading, marking the mid-point with respect to the team's regular season schedule on home ice. The Royals are 10-7-0-1 at Santander Arena this year, which is a .583 win percentage.

- During the last thirteen games, the Royals have held the opposition to two goals or less seven times. Over the course of the season, Reading is 12-0-0-0 when allowing two or fewer goals.

- The Royals have outscored the opposition 43 - 29 in the last thirteen games, which translates into a 3.30 goals per game average and a 2.23 goals against average. Overall, Reading is averaging 3.38 goals per game (seventh best) and 3.03 goals against (fifteenth).

- In Wednesday's win, Reading scored the game's first goal (by Cam Reid 13:32 into the first period). The Royals have compiled a record of 13-3-0-1 when scoring first this year. Reading is 8-1-0-1 when scoring the game's first goal on home ice.

- The Royals are now 14-6-0-0 against teams from the North Division with eighteen more games yet to be played against teams from the North.

- On Wednesday, Reading was credited with a season-high forty-five shots on goal. That marked the fourth time this season that the Royals have generated forty or more shots on goal this year. (The team is 2-2-0-0 in those games). Reading also had forty shots in the season opening 6-3 loss to the Nailers on October 18.

- In four of the seven games played against Wheeling so far this season, Reading has generated 36 or more shots on goal. Overall, Reading averages 32.59 shots on goal per game, which is fourth best in the league.

- Reading was credited with twenty-one second period shots on Wednesday. That tied a team season high for shots in a single period for the Royals.

- On Wednesday, Cam Reid started the scoring off with his team-leading twelfth goal of the season. It was also his team-leading fourth 'first goal' of the year. Reid also picked up the primary assist on the game winner by Jordan Heywood to record his seventh multi-point performance of the season. On Thursday, Reid was selected to represent the Royals in the 2015 CCM / ECHL All-Star Classic in Orlando, Florida, on January 21.

- Olivier Labelle's goal on Wednesday, which was his eleventh of the year, gave the Royals a 2-1 lead with 1:21 left in the second period. That was Labelle's first power play goal of the season. Labelle is the team's all-time career leader in goals scored with 82 goals (and 155 points) in his 188 games with the team.

- Jordan Heywood scored what proved to be the game winning goal on Wednesday (the Royals' third) 4:04 into the third period. Heywood has scored three goals in twelve games with the Royals and two of those goals have been game winners.

- Ryan Cruthers' goal on Wednesday (which gave the Royals a 4-1 lead 5:17 into the third period) was his 79th as a Royal (second most all-time). Cruthers is the team's all-time leading scorer with 246 points (79g-167a) in 243 games with the team.

- On Wednesday, Adam Hughesman recorded his eighth multi-point game of the year (1g-3a) which is tied with David Marshall and Pat Mullane for the team lead in that category. His four point night ties the team season high, which has been accomplished twice previously-both by Ryan Cruthers. Hughesman is tied with Pat Mullane for the team scoring leading with thirty points (11g-19a) in thirty-two games (which is tied for twenty-first in the ECHL scoring race).

- David Marshall recorded a pair of assists in Wednesday's 5-2 win over Wheeling to rack up his eighth multi-point game of the year.

- On Wednesday, the line of Adam Hughesman, Cam Reid, and David Marshall collectively accounted for eight points (2g-6a) tonight and played to a plus-9 (+9).

- Goaltender Connor Knapp pushed his personal win streak to four games with the twenty-six save victory over the Nailers on Wednesday.

- The Royals power play has scored a goal in each of the last two games. This marks the first time that Reading has scored a PPG in back-to-back games since the team recorded a power play goal in four straight games back in late November (11/21 - 11/26/14).

- The Royals only allowed one power play chance against tonight, which ties the team low in that category. Reading is 14-3-1-1 when the penalty killers keep the opposition's power play off the board.

Royals Recent Transactions

01/05/15 Add G Joe Howe Activated from ECHL Reserve

Delete G Joe Howe Loaned to Manchester (AHL)

Add D Maxim Lamarche Loaned from Lehigh Valley (AHL)

Delete F Andrew Johnston Placed on ECHL Reserve

01/09/15 Add F Andrew Johnston Activated from ECHL Reserve

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

Reading Royals v Brampton Beast

@ Santander Arena - Reading, PA

Saturday, January 10, 2015 (7:05 pm)

NEXT UP: The Royals return home for back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday at Santander Arena in Reading where they will face the Brampton Beast for the first time in team history. On Saturday, the Royals will celebrate Pink in the Rink with pink ice, and the first 2500 fans will receive a pink bag courtesy of Sweet Street Desserts. The team will wear special pink-themed jerseys that will be auctioned after the game to benefit Breast Cancer Support Services of Berks County. The Royals will also induct Malcolm MacMillan, who holds the all-time penalty minute record, into the team's Wall of Honor.

Please note that Saturday's broadcast is an internet only broadcast. Coverage on CBS SportsRadio 1240 am and 98.5 fm in Reading will be pre-empted by NFL Football presented by Westwood One. Streaming audio is available free of charge on the Royals' website (follow the 'headset' icon); and streaming video is available on a pay-per-view basis through ECHL.TV.

For more information about the Royals, call 610-898-7825 or log onto www.royalshockey.com.

Check out the Reading Royals Statistics



ECHL Stories from January 9, 2015


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