April 4, 2012

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, today announced that defenseman Denny Urban was the AMI Graphics ECHL Plus-Performer of Month for March. Urban played to a league leading plus-16 (+16) in fifteen games for Reading in the final month of the ECHL’s regular season.

Urban, a first year pro from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, played to even or better in twelve of those fifteen games played during March. He closed out the regular season by playing to a plus-13 (+13) in the team’s final six games, which included a career high plus-5 (+5) performance in the season finale against the Trenton Titans.

Urban, who was the only Royal to play in all seventy-two regular season games, registered forty-seven points (12g-35a) in his first full year of pro, placing him third in scoring amongst defensemen in league scoring. Twenty-two of Urban’s points (5g-17a) came while the team was playing with the man advantage. Urban, who had eleven multi-point performances during the regular season, tied for second on the team with four game winning goals—three of which came in the last five games of the Royals’ regular season.

Urban is the sixth player in the eleven year history of the Royals to earn the monthly Plus-Performer Award joining Jeff Miles (November, 2004), Chris Barr (November, 2005), Shawn Germain (December, 2006), P.J. Atherton (October, 2007), and Ben Gordon (December, 2009) as recipients of the award. Urban’s plus-16 this past March set a team record for plus-minus in a single month for the Royals.

In recognition of his accomplishment, AMI Graphics will present Denny Urban with a personalized Plus Performer of the Month Banner.

The Royals and Elmira Jackals play Game Two of the Eastern Conference Quarter Final best of five series tonight (Wednesday, April 4, 2012 @ 7:05 pm) at the Sovereign Center. Wednesday’s game night broadcast will start at 6:35 pm with the Red Robin Gourmet Burger Pre-Game Warm-up Show on ESPN Radio 1240 am in Reading. Streaming audio is available free of charge courtesy of America One through the Royals’ website, www.royalshockey.com.