January 17

On the road in the morning for the Sovereign Center as the Royals hosted the Trenton Devils in the annual Martin Luther King Day matinee game. With no school because of the holiday the game was marketed as a "Kid's Day", we had better than 5300 in attendance for the 1:05 faceoff. This was the second consecutive year the T-Devs were the opponent for this game, in 2010 the Royals won 4-3 on a score with 1.2 seconds left in regulation play. There would be no such occurrence on this day as Trenton won it in the overtime shootout 2-1. The Royals trailed 1-0 after two periods, defenseman Cody Wild scored on the power play to tie it 1-1 in the third period. In overtime the Royals were shorthanded by two men but managed to kill the penalties and force the shootout, Trenton won the shootout three goals to two and claimed the victory. The T-Devils have one of the poorer records in the league but a game against them is never easy, the Royals are 4-2-1 in the season series with nine game remaining (six of those at the Sovereign Center). This game marked the midpoint of the season, the Royals stand at 23-10-3 (10-5-2 at home, 13-5-1 on the road). The club plays in Estero, Florida on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, the next home game is on Friday the 28th when the Greenville Road Warriors come to town. Until then we'll be focusing on basketball as JPM plays six games in eleven days. The boys play at Hempfield on Tuesday, at Cocalico Thursday and at home against Octorara on Saturday. Next week the gauntlet is Monday at home, Wednesday and Friday on the road. Looks like "make-it-or-break-it" time is here. Take care, thanks for reading.