Royals Win Eleventh Straight in a Shootout Over Florida, 3-2

Teams     Per: 1          2          3          OT      SO

FLA:               1          0          1          0          0= 2 

REA:              2          0          0          0          1= 3

Records

FLA: 29-9-2-4=64 (2nd East Division)

REA:  32-13-1-1=66 (1st East Division)

Goaltenders

FLA: Iles (SOL) 8-6-0-2 (23/25) (7/9 in shootout)

REA: Ouellette (Win) 14-6-1-1 (36/38) (8/9 in shootout)

Power Play:

FLA: 1-7

REA: 1-7

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals (­­­­­­­­win, 32-13-1-1=66) 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 Florida Everblades (SOL, 29-9-2-4=64) in a shootout, 3-2, at Santander Arena in Reading, PA.

In the third game in three days between the Royals and Everblades, Reading scored first and led until the 19:59.9 mark of the third period, when Florida tied the game on a last-second desperation shot. However, the Royals were ultimately able to claim the two points—and the team’s eleventh consecutive win—in a nine round shootout. The Royals goals came on an early five-on-three power play and a short-handed rush shortly after that, while the Everblades got a first period power play goal of their own—but their critical goal came on a deflection just as the final horn was about to blow. The Royals had ample opportunity to end things in the overtime, during which the team was awarded a power play; but it took the longest shootout ever on home ice for Reading to sweep the three game set, tie the team record for consecutive victories, and remain in sole possession of first place in the East Division of the Eastern Conference of the ECHL.

First Period (2-1, Reading)

3:06 (1-0, Reading) Reading Goal (Power Play)

Cruthers (10); Marcou and Davies (redirect of wrist pass from left point)

Back-to-back early penalties against the Everblades gave the Royals a long sequence of five-on-three. Reading made Florida pay when defenseman Mike Marcou stepped up on the left point and fired a wrist pass towards the left side of the net, where Ryan Cruthers was set up for a deft, blade-angled-up re-direct sending the puck up and over goaltender Andy Isles, who was diving forward in attempt to make the save. For Cruthers, it was his tenth goal of the season—and fifteenth power play point of the year.

6:10 (2-1, Reading) Reading Goal (Short-Handed)

Marshall (15); Molle (out of the penalty box race onto the puck power move to the top of the crease)

Reading took a two-goal lead with a goal by the other special team—the penalty killers. After the Royals’ PK knocked off 1:25 of five-on-three against, David Marshall stepped out of the penalty box and into the play. With another Royal (Andrew Johnston) still in the box, Marshall took a chip out of the defensive zone on the fly and charged off flying into the offensive zone with an Everblade defender hot on his heels. Marshall used his body to protect the puck as he cut down the gut towards the Florida net, and just as he got in tight, he chipped a perfectly placed floating back-hand into the upper reaches of the net for his fifteenth of the year.

12:07 (2-1, Reading) Florida Goal (Power Play)

Bloodoff (18); Wahl and Burt (redirect of wrist pass off the left half wall)

The Everblades cut the lead to one with a power play goal of their own on their third power play of the night. With the number one power play in the league buzzing in the offensive zone, Mitch Wahl settled on the left half wall and threaded a wrist-pass to the top of crease, where Evan Bloodoff nicked just enough of the puck to send it sliding across the crease, as well as the body of Martin Ouellette, where it caught the interior portion of the right pipe and slipped across the goal line.

Second Period (2-1, Reading)

NO SCORING

The Sunday afternoon fourth-game-in-five-days blues seemed to weigh down the legs of both teams in the second frame, as the period was replete with perimeter shots and somewhat less than precision passing, as both teams seemed reasonably content to keep it a one-goal contest headed into the third.

Third Period (2-2, Tie)

19:59.9 (2-2, Tie) Florida Goal (Sixth Attacker)

Bloodoff 2 (19); Burt and Aviani (deflection of a shot from left point)

The Everblades used up just about every ounce available time in the final period of regulation time before tying the game in the final one-tenth of a second left. With the goaltender pulled and the sixth attacker on the ice, Florida kept pushing and with the buzzer just about to blow, Cameron Burt fired a low hard shot into heavy traffic that was deflected by Evan Bloodoff, sending the puck sliding through the legs of Oullette for Bloodoff’s second of the game and nineteenth of the year.

Overtime (2-2, Tie)

NO SCORING

Despite getting an early power play chance in the extra session, the Royals weren’t able to make the Everblades pay on that one—although the team did maintain significant offensive zone puck possession and a couple of good looks.

Shootout (3-2, Reading)

Reading 2 – Florida 1

In the shootout, the Royals went first and both teams bagged their first attempt (Ryan Cruthers for Reading and Matt Marquardt for Florida). From there, fourteen different shooters took a whack without hitting paydirt. But in the ninth round, Andrew Johnston, in his first shootout attempt ever as a Royal, beat goaltender Isles to give the Royals the 2-1 lead—and then Martin Ouellette, playing in his fourth shootout as a Royal, rejected Mike Aviani’s bid to run his personal record to 3-1 in the skills competition.

First Shooter: REA: Cruthers (SCORED); FLA: Matt Marquardt (SCORED)

Second Shooter: REA: Mullane (stopped); FLA: Brace (stopped)

Third Shooter: REA: Reid (stopped); FLA: Bloodoff (stopped)

Fourth Shooter: REA: Marshall (stopped); FLA: Harris (stopped)

Fifth Shooter: REA: Monardo (stopped); FLA: Wahl (stopped)

Sixth Shooter: REA: Wiles (stopped); FLA: Burt (stopped)

Seventh Shooter: REA: Hughesman (stopped); FLA: Kushneriuk (stopped)

Eighth Shooter: REA: Labelle (stopped); FLA: Little (stopped)

Ninth Shooter: REA: Johnston (SCORED) (SHOOTOUT WINNER); FLA: Aviani (stopped)

NOTES:

• The scratches for the Royals tonight were: Ian Watters (f) (healthy) (ECHL Reserve), Kevin Sullivan (f) (healthy), (ECHL Reserve), and Kevin Walrod (f) (healthy).

• Goaltender Connor Knapp was recalled to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms today and served as the back-up goaltender to Anthony Stolarz in the Phantoms’ 5-4 overtime win over the Hershey Bears.

• Tonight’s win stretched the Royals overall win streak to a season-long eleven games (11-0-0-0), dating to a 4-3 shootout win over the Elmira Jackals on January 17. This ties the longest win streak in team history, originally established when Reading won eleven straight games from November 2 – November 23, 2012.

• This marks the second shootout win for Reading in this current eleven game win streak. In the team’s first eleven game win streak (in November of 2012), the Royals won two of those games in a shootout and two of those games in overtime.

• The Royals eleven game win streak is the longest win streak of the year in the ECHL. (The longest regular season win streak in ECHL history belongs to the 2007-08 Cincinnati Cyclones who won seventeen consecutive games, January 13 – February 29, 2008).

• Reading has won twelve of the last thirteen games, fifteen of the last eighteen, twenty of the last twenty-four and twenty-three of the last twenty-eight played.

• The victory pushed the Royals record to a season high nineteen games over .500 (32-13-1-1=66).

• With the win tonight, the Royals will remain in first place in the East Division of the Eastern Conference of the ECHL.

• Reading’s 32 wins leads all teams in the ECHL’s Eastern Conference and is tied with the Allen Americans and Colorado Eagles for the most wins in the league.

• Tonight’s victory stretched the Royals current home win streak to a season-long six games, dating to a 6-2 win over Brampton on January 11.

• The Royals have compiled a home record of 16-8-0-1 through twenty-five games at Santander Arena.

• The Royals won each of the games in the three-game set with the Florida Everblades. This marked the fifth time this season that Reading has played a single opponent in three straight games; and it is the first time that the Royals won all three games in the series. (The Royals won two of the three games in each of the other four previous series.)

• This was the third game of the year between the Royals and Everblades, who will face each other a total of six times this year (four in Reading and two in Florida). The two teams will next meet on Wednesday, March 25 at Santander Arena.

• Tonight’s victory pushed the Royals’ record to 13-5-1-1 against teams from the East Division with nine more games to be played against teams from the East.

• Reading scored the game’s first goal tonight, marking the twenty-seventh time this season that the Royals have notched the ‘fg’. The team has compiled a record of 22-4-0-1 when the team has scored first.

• Ryan Cruthers snapped a nine game goal scoring drought with his tenth goal of the year 3:06 into the first period tonight, while the Royals were playing with the man advantage. It was Cruthers’ first ‘first goal’ of the season and his second power play goal of the year. It was also Cruthers’ team-leading fifteenth power play point of the year (2g-13a), which is tied for fourth most in the league.

• Cruthers became the seventh different player for the Royals to reach double-digits in goals scored with his tenth of the year tonight.

• Mike Marcou picked up an assist Cruthers’ power play goal tonight. That was Marcou’s twelfth power play assist of the season, which leads all defensemen in the ECHL. Marcou has twenty-seven points (4g-23a) in forty-six games with the Royals, which is tied for twelfth in defensemen scoring in the league.

• David Marshall, who has scored a goal in five of his last six games, bagged his first short-handed goal of the year tonight. Marshall has sixteen points (7g-9a) in his last fifteen games.

• Bryant Molle picked up an assist on the short-handed goal by Marshall tonight. Molle has four short-handed assists this season, which leads lead in the league.

• The Royals have scored a short-handed goal in three of the last four games played by the team. Reading now has nine short-handed goals this year, which is tied for second most in the league.

• Goaltender Martin Ouellette pushed his personal win streak to four straight with the 36 save (and eight of nine in the shootout) win tonight. Ouellette has won ten of his last twelve games with the Royals and is 12-2-1-1 in his last sixteen games with the team.

• With the shootout win tonight, Reading ran the team’s record to 5-1 in the skills competition.

• Tonight’s nine round shootout ties the second longest shootout in team history—but it was the longest shootout ever on home ice for the Royals. (Reading has gone nine rounds in the shootout four different times in team history, but the other three were all on the road.) The longest shootout in team history went twelve rounds (and that was on the road, as well: on March 26, 2006 against the Trenton Titans in Trenton, New Jersey).

• Despite getting touched up for a power play goal by the Florida Everblades tonight, the Royals killed eleven of the twelve power play chances that Florida had in the three-game weekend set. Reading’s penalty killers have knocked off 45 of the last 48 power play chances for the opposition over the last thirteen games, which is a 93.8% kill ratio during that span

• Reading’s power play has scored at least one goal in eleven of the last seventeen games, going 19 for 75 in that span (25.3%).

NEXT UP FOR THE ROYALS

Reading Royals v Cincinnati Cyclones

@ US Bank Arena – Cincinnati, OH

Wednesday, February 11, 2015 (7:30 pm)

NEXT UP: The Royals head on the road for a five game road trip starting at US Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the Royals will take on the Cincinnati Cyclones on Wednesday (February 11 @ 7:30 pm). As with all road games for the Royals, Wednesday’s game will be televised live locally in Berks County, Pennsylvania on BCTV courtesy of Boscov’s Travel and Apple Vacations. Wednesday’s game day broadcast can be heard live in the Reading area on CBS SportsRadio (1240 am and 98.5 fm) beginning with the pre-game warm-up show presented by Highmark Blue Shield at 6:35 pm. Streaming internet audio is also available free of charge and can be accessed by following the ‘headset’ icon on the Royals’ website. 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 15 02-08