READING, PA – The Reading Royals are back in the ECHL playoffs after a one year hiatus but face a tough task in the first round of the playoffs against the Kalamazoo Wings who is in their first season in the ECHL. The best-of-five series begins Tuesday night and will open in Kalamazoo.
Let’s take a preview of the series and how we see it playing out.
Series overview
Kalamazoo won the regular season series against the Royals 5-1. The Wings are an affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers and San Jose Sharks. The Royals are an affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins.
Reading
The Royals ended the regular season with a two game win streak and were 6-2-0-2 in their last ten games. In March, the Royals won eight games, tying a team record which has been accomplished three times in the teams nine year history. Reading also finished the regular season with the fifth best record in team history (37-29-1-5, 80 points) and will make their fifth appearance in the ECHL playoffs. In order to make the playoffs the Royals had to do so in dramatic fashion. Trailing 6-3 at the start of the third period in Friday night’s game against the Wheeling Nailers, Reading came back with three goals in the third to tie the game in regulation and won the game in a shootout. It was the first time all season long that the Royals had trailed entering the third period of play on the road and came back to win a hockey game (1-16-0-0). Overall, Reading had a record of 4-27-0-2 when entering the third period when trailing. During the regular season, Reading compiled a record of 32-2-0-1 when scoring four or more goals. Saturday’s game against Trenton marked the first time in team history that two Royals have registered a hat trick in a single game. Daniel Steiner became the third player in team history to score four goals in a game and the sixth player in team history to register five points in a game.
Ryan Cruthers led the team in scoring with 71 points (22g-49a) and ended the season tied for ninth in the ECHL scoring race. Cruthers’ 49 assists is the third most in Royals history (In 2002-03, Brian McCullough had 95 points; and in 2006-07, Greg Hogeboom picked up 74). Andrew Sarauer’s 28 goals is the fourth most by a Royal. (Brian McCullough: 39, 2002-03; Doug Christiansen, 35, 2005-06; and Greg Hogeboom, 30, 2006-07).
Boston Bruins prospect Matt Dalton had 22 wins, the fifth highest single season win total for a Reading Royal. Dalton also established a new team record for minutes played in a season(2735, 7 minutes more than Cody Rudkowsky) and was second in the ECHL in saves made (1524) which is also a team record.
Bold Prediction:
The Wings are a more balanced team on offense and defense. The Royals won the last game of the reason between the two teams and have most of their offensive talent back in the lineup. Offensively the Royals can keep up with the Wings, but defensively it’s another story. Of all of the playoff teams the Royals have the worst defense, allowing 21 more goals than they scored on the season.
The good news for the Royals is that both teams did not play well on the penalty kill ranking 16th and 17th. The power play is the Royals Achilles heal and they must stay out of the penalty box of they are to have a chance.
If Dalton can keep them in games and the offense matches the Wings toe-for-toe this will he one of, if not the highest scoring playoffs series this year. Despite having more points than the Royals, Reading has home ice advantage thanks to a Miranda Lambert concert in Kalamazoo. You can bet if Reading wins the series in five games a fruit basket will be sent to the country singers tour bus with a thank you card.
Still, our gut feeling is the series won’t go that far. Wings will win in five games unless Reading can score goals. If they do it’s a five game series, but we still see the Wings winning the series.
Tue, April 6 Reading@Kalamazoo (7:00 pm) Wed, April 7 Reading@Kalamazoo (7:00 pm) Fri, April 9 Kalamazoo@Reading (7:05 pm) Sun, April 11 Kalamazoo@Reading , if necessary (7:05 pm) Mon, April 12 Kalamazoo@Reading , if necessary (7:05 pm)
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