February 17-19

Friday and Sunday were quiet and uneventful days that provided the perfect bookends to a busy and memorable Saturday. The day started with the drive south for Jenny and Helen, we came back to the city for a quick lunch and to meet up with the team bus at McCaskey. For there it was on to Manheim Township HS for the L-L League championship game and a 71-57 victory over Lancaster Catholic. It was not an easy win by any stretch, LCHS led by three after one quarter but JPM recovered to take a six-point lead to the locker room at the half. In the third quarter the Red Tornado expanded the lead to thirteen, in the final minutes with the outcome decided Coach Powell was able to get the entire roster into the game. Ten players scored for McCaskey as Aaron Swinton (whose father Aaron played on our 1993 championship club) led the way with 15, Brian Newsome had 12 and former LC player Devonne Pinkard had 12 against his former teammates. In forty years of play in the L-L League McCaskey has won seventeen division titles and been in the playoffs twenty-six times. This day marked the program's twenty-first appearance in the league title game, this was our 12th championship win. The win was Coach Powell's 370th in his twenty years as head coach and his seventh L-L title victory, it was also the club's 20th win of the season. As the celebration wound down and the team boarded the bus for the ride home the ladies and I continued our junket north on route 272 towards Reading. After a 2-1 road trip the Royals hosted the Wheeling Nailers in the annual "Pink In The Rink" game for breast cancer awareness. As is the custom the club wore special jerseys trimmed in pink which were auctioned for the cause after the game. This night at the Sovereign Center could not have gone much better as the Royals won it 4-0 for the club's first shutout win of the season. Unusual circumstances arose at game time when goaltender Jussi Rynnas had skate trouble and was unable to start the game, Karel St. Laurent played the first five minutes before Rynnas was able to get onto the ice. Shared shutouts are rare in hockey but the club will take it. Matt Caruana, Casey Haines, Dale Mitchell and Kenny Ryan scored the Royals goals as the team improves to 24-22-6 on the year, we'll be at home on Monday the 20th for a President's Day game with Elmira. All in all it was a day to remember for all the right reasons, as the late "Classy" Freddie Blassie would have said it was "piggly wiggly day"-two games, two wins. Take care, thanks for reading.