February 1-2

Tuesday dawned with icy precipitation falling, it had stopped by the time I went out but there was a good bit of windshield scraping to do at the car. It was announced that the game with Warwick was postponed, since the gym was booked for a girls' game on Wednesday our game was rescheduled for Thursday. The rain returned in the evening with predictions of more freeze-up overnight. Wednesday morning was warmer than Tuesday had been, there was no ice-scraping necessary. In the afternoon I was on my way north as the Wheeling Nailers visited the Sovereign Center, Jenny was not with me since this game was not on her personal schedule. The Royals play eight home games in February, seven of them are against Wheeling, Trenton or Elmira. The Eastern Conference of the ECHL has three divisions, the Royals currently lead the Atlantic while the Nailers are in first place in the North and Greenville leads the South. The club's roster was bolstered on this night with the return of Ryan Cruthers and Ben Gordon from stints in the AHL, Ryan has been on loan to the Manitoba Moose while Ben spent the weekend with the Rochester Americans. Their presence was a difference-maker as they accounted for all the goals in a 3-1 victory. Gordon's goal in the second period gave the club a 1-0 lead, after Wheeling tied it in the third period Cruthers scored twice including an empty-netter to clinch the win. Michael Hutchinson was huge in goal stopping forty of the forty-one shots he faced, he was named the game's #1 star. It was an excellent game between two of the better teams in the league but unfortunately we had a small crowd on hand, only about 3200 ventured out on a cold Wednesday night. The boys are at home on Friday the 4th against Trenton. Take care, thanks for reading.