Royals Take the Opening Salvo in Evansville, 2-1

Teams     Per: 1          2          3

REA:              1          1          0= 2 

EVN:              0          0          1= 1

Records

REA: 14-9-1-1=30 (t-4th East Division)

EVN:  8-12-1-2=19 (6th North Division)

Goaltenders

REA:  Ouellette (win) 9-4-1-1 (27/28)

EVN: Dreieger (loss) 5-9-1-1 (34/36)

Power Play:

REA: 0-3

EVN: 0-4

Evansville, IN – The Reading Royals (­­­­­­­­­win, 14-9-1-1=30) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League, defeated the Evansville Icemen (loss, 8-12-1-2=19), 2-1, at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.

In the first trip of the season to Evansville’s Ford Center, the Royals scored first on a hot-bullet snapper off the rush by defenseman Adam Comrie and then built a 2-0 lead on what proved to be the fifth game winner of the year for David Marshall. The only blemish on goaltender Martin Ouellette’s performance tonight wasn’t really a blemish at all—just an unfortunate bounce off a teammate from an extremely sharp angle with 55.1 seconds left in regulation. The Royals and Oullette then held off the Icemen down the stretch to with for the fifth time in the last six games—and push the team’s historical record at Ford Center in Evansville over the past three seasons to 5-1-0-0.

First Period (1-0, Reading)

6:10 (1-0, Reading) Reading Goal

Comrie (7); Mullane and Watters (one-time snap shot from high slot)

Reading struck early off the rush when Ian Watters forced a puck down the left wing side. Pat Mullane tracked the puck down and slipped a saucer back-up into the high slot where the second wave in the form of defenseman Adam Comrie was coming with speed. Comrie stepped in and sniped a hot bullet from the high slot that beat goaltender Chris Driedger to the glove side for Comrie’s seventh of the season.

Second Period (2-0, Reading)

12:58 (2-0, Reading) Reading Goal

Marshall (9); Labelle and Wiles (snap shot from left circle)

The Royals stretched the lead to two immediately after killing the third of what were back-to-back-to-back power play chances for the Icemen in the second period of play. Olivier Labelle stepped out of the penalty box and into a three-on-one rush with Sean Wiles and David Marshall into the offensive end. Marshall carried down the right wing side and fed Labelle, who was charging into the left circle off the rush. Labelle heeled his one timer, but Wiles tracked down the loose puck below the goal line and fed the puck back to Marshall who came across to find an open seam in the left circle. Marshall drilled a hot snapper that beat Driedger to the short side for his ninth of the year—and what would prove to be his fifth game winner of the season.

Third Period (2-1 Reading)

19:05 (2-1, Reading) Evansville Goal

Hobbs (4); Rutkowski and Wong (deflection of shot from right wing corner)

After repeatedly being rejected by great stops by goaltender Martin Ouellette—particular down the stretch when the Icemen opened the flood gates—Evansville finally solved the Royals’ goalie on a a somewhat flukey goal. With time ticking down and the goaltender pulled (and a full bore aggressive attack underway), the puck was shot out of the right wing corner from directly along the goal line. The puck was high in the air and headed to the middle of the ice and (unfortunately for Reading) grazed off one of the Reading defenders and deflected into the net at an extremely steep angle on the short side.

But that would be it for the Icemen, as the Royals, who had a couple of golden chances to nail things down with an empty netter—but came up empty, held on for the team’s sixth road win of the year (6-3-1-0).

NOTES:

• The scratches for the Royals tonight were: Jordan Heywood (d), Andrew Johnston (f), and Matt Hatch (f) (ECHL Reserve).

• Tonight’s win pushed the Royals’ record to the team’s high-water mark of five games over .500 for the first time this season.

• This marked the fourth time in the last five games that the Royals have played a one-goal decision. Reading has won three of those one-goal games in this sequence. Overall, the Royals are 8-4-1-1 in games decided by one goal.

• The Royals have compiled a record of 9-3-0-1 when scoring the game’s first goal.

• Defenseman Adam Comrie scored his seventh goal of the season tonight, which is tied for the league lead amongst d-men in the ECHL.

• David Marshall scored his ninth goal of the season tonight, which is tied for the team lead with Adam Hughesman. Marshall’s goal proved to be his team leading fifth game winning goal of the year, which is also tied for the league lead.

• Pat Mullane stretched his assist streak to three straight games tonight (0g-5a). Mullane has sixteen points (4g-12a) in his last fourteen games.

• Olivier Labelle’s assist tonight was his 147th point (78g-69a) in his 181st career game as a Royal.

• Sean Wiles extended his personal point streak to three games (2g-2a) with his primary assist on the game winner by Marshall tonight.

• Goaltender Martin Ouellette stretched his personal win streak to a team season-long five straight tonight. Ouellette is 8-1-1-1 in his last eleven games with Reading. Tonight’s game marked the fifth time this season that Ouellette has held the opposition to one goal or less.

• Reading’s power play was held off the board for the fourth straight game (0-3) tonight. It marked the second consecutive game for the Royals to be awarded a five-minute major power play on which they did not score. Reading’s PP has been blanked in six of the last seven games and in eight of the last ten. During that ten game span, the power play has gone 3 for 36 (8.3%).

• The Royals penalty killers blanked Evansville’s power play on four chances with the man advantage tonight. That marked the fifteenth time this season that Reading’s PK held the opposition’s power play off the board. The Royals have gone 10-3-1-1 in those games.

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

Reading Royals v Evansville Icemen

@ Ford Center – Evansville, IN

Saturday, December 20, 2014 (8:15 pm Eastern Time)

NEXT UP: The Royals complete the ‘pre-Holiday’ portion of this five game road trip tomorrow night (Saturday, December 20 @ 8:15 pm Eastern Time) when the team will face the Evansville Icemen for the second consecutive night. The game night broadcast for tomorrow’s game can be heard live on CBS SportsRadio 1240 am and 98.5 in Reading, Pennsylvania, starting with the pre-game warm-up show presented by Highmark Blue Shield at 7:45 pm Eastern Time. As with all Royals’ road games this season, Saturday’s game will be televised live in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on BCTV courtesy of Boscov’s Travel and Apple Vacations. 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.

End 14 12-19