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ECHL Reading Royals

Yutaka Fukufuji Assigned To Royals

October 12, 2006 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Reading, PA - The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League and the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League, today announced that goaltender, Yutaka Fukufuji ("yuh TAHK ah -- FOO kah FOO jee") has been assigned from Manchester to Reading. An eighth round pick of the Kings in 2004, Fukufuji (6'1"/186 lbs.) appeared in twenty-nine regular season games for the Royals last year, compiling a record of 15 - 9 - 4 with a goals against average of 2.91 and a save percentage of .917. Fukufuji, who was born in Tokyo, Japan, and grew up on that country's northernmost island, Hokkaido, also played two regular season games for the Monarchs, going 1 - 1 - 0 (3.00, .923). Despite a lower body injury that flared late in the regular season, Fukufuji, who turned 24 in mid-September, fought through the pain to come on during the playoffs in substitution of Royals' goaltender Cody Rudkowsky, who went down with a season-ending groin injury 2:06 into Game One of the North Division Semi-Final series against the Wheeling Nailers. Fukufuji courageously battled through four playoff games for Reading, going 1 - 1 - 1 (3.37/.888) before being helped off the ice 18:53 into the fourth and final playoff game of the season for the Royals. In a separate transaction yesterday, the Royals released goaltender, Adam Horvath.

After taking up hockey at age 11 on Hokkaido, where the weather is similar to that of the northeastern United States or Ontario and where hockey is comparatively popular, Fukufuji developed into a pro goaltender by the time he was nineteen, playing fourteen games with the Kokudo Bunnies of the Japanese Ice Hockey League in 2001-02. During this time period, Fukufuji was also invited to join the Japanese National Team for international competition. While continuing his development with the National Team, Fukufuji made his initial jump to North American pro hockey in February of 2003, when he joined the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. In his first appearance for the Cyclones at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Fukufuji made 30 stops to lead Cincinnati to a 3-2 overtime win against the Johnstown Chiefs. Fukufuji stayed with the Cyclones through mid-March, playing in nine ECHL games and compiling a record of 4 - 3 - 0 (3.13/.915). In the fall of 2003, Fukufuji returned to the JIHL and the Japanese National Team, playing that year in Reading's Sovereign Center as a part of a National Team's US tour. Later that season, Fukufuji played five games for Japan in the International Ice Hockey Federation's World Championships held in the Czech Republic, going 0 - 3 - 2 in those games. Fukufuji impressed the National Team's coach, Glenn Williamson (who also happened to be a pro scout for the Kings), to the point that he recommended that Los Angeles invest a draft pick in Fukufuji. The Kings did just that on June 27, 2004, selecting Fukufuji as the 238th pick in the NHL Entry Draft and making him the first Japanese-born goaltender ever drafted to the National League.

The following year, in his first full season of North American pro, Fukufuji led the Bakersfield Condors to the ECHL playoffs with a team high 27 wins in 44 appearances for the Condors (27 - 9 - 5, 2.48, .919). During that season, Fukufuji pieced together two separate seven game win streaks and racked up three shutouts, as he earned the league's selection as the Rookie of the Month for January of 2005. Unfortunately, Fukufuji, who was also selected by Bakersfield's coaching staff as the team Rookie of the Year, suffered a late season injury which prevented him from playing in the 2005 Kelly Cup Playoffs.

Nonetheless, Fukufuji's performance in Bakersfield earned him a two-year NHL entry level contract with the Kings in August of 2005. Eventually assigned to the Royals, Fukufuji was immediately put to the task, facing over forty shots in his first two games for the team-a 6-5 shootout loss to the Wheeling Nailers (10/28/05) and a 3-2 win over the Greenville Grrrowl (11/04/05). In fact, out of his twenty-nine appearances for Reading last year, Fukufuji faced forty or more shots in nine of those games, including a 50 stop performance against the Trenton Titans on March 25, 2006. In that game, Fukufuji was nothing short of spectacular, establishing a team record with 23 third period stops in the 3-1 win in front of a sellout crowd at the Sovereign Center. That week, Fukufuji was selected at the ECHL's Goaltender of the Week. In another game where his teammates held the opposition to a considerably lower number of shots, Fukufuji made all 21 stops he was required to make in recording his first shutout as a Royal-a 1 - 0 win over the Dayton Bombers in Reading on February 24, 2006.

Fukufuji also earned his first call-up to the American Hockey League last season, when the Monarchs recalled him on November 22, 2005. In his first AHL appearance, on November 26, Fukufuji (perhaps not surprisingly) faced forty shots and made 37 stops in a 6-3 win over the Springfield Falcons. In the playoffs last season, despite being in a physically vulnerable condition, Fukufuji gave the Royals a chance to win every game in which he played-and, in fact, did pick up the Royals' lone playoff win last year, making 33 stops in the 4 -1 victory over the Wheeling Nailers in Game Two of the North Division Semi-Finals in Reading.

Full season tickets and total choice flex plans and individual game tickets for the 2006-07 season of Royals' hockey are currently on sale. For more information, contact the Royals' office at 610-898-7825 or visit the Royals website, www.royalshockey.com.

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