October 15-16

Saturday night at the Arena in downtown Reading for Opening Night of the 2016-17 ECHL season, "Hometown Hockey" is the Royals' marketing slogan for the new year. The Elmira Jackals were the opponent making the first of their five regular-season visits. The Royals' opening-night roster features thirteen players who appeared for the club in '15-16, in addition popular former Royal Olivier Labelle is back with the team after spending a season playing in France. The Royals came out strong in the opening period scoring three times in the first ten minutes. Perhaps it was only appropriate for Labelle to score the season's first goal, just over a minute later Reading native Steven Swavely lit the lamp to make it 2-0 (Swavely is a first-year pro on assignment from the AHL Phantoms, he played as a collegian at the University Of Maine). Two minutes after Swavely's score veteran newcomer Kris Newbury (fourteen-year pro with seventy-six NHL games to his credit) extended the advantage to three but the Jackals got one back, another Elmira score early in the second made it 3-2. Late in the period Chris McCarthy (third year pro, Phantoms assignee from the University Of Vermont) gave the Royals some wiggle room, in the final period Labelle bagged his second goal of the night to up the lead to three. A final score by Ryan Penny (second-year pro from Fall River, Nova Scotia) rounded out a 6-2 win on a night that could not have gone much better, Mark Dekanich was the winner in net. The night's Three Stars were all Royals, Penny at #3, Newbury #2 and Labelle #1. The boys play in Wheeling on Thursday the 20th, the next home game is the 21st against Manchester. Take care, thanks for reading.