December 28-29

Friday afternoon: on the road north for game #2 of the Royals' weekend miniseries with the Trenton Titans. The boys lost in overtime on Thursday in Trenton, on this night in Reading the Royals returned the favor with a 5-4 win in regulation. For two periods it was somewhat mundane as the club built a 5-1 lead, in the final period all hell broke loose as the teams combined for better than a hundred penalty minutes. Between seven major penalties (four against Trenton), seven ejections (including three Royals) and a three-goal Trenton comeback the Royals managed to hold on for the win. Yannick Tifu scored twice (including the GWG), with Ethan Cox, Barry Almeida and Adam Comrie also lighting the lamp. Rookie goaltender Sergey Kostenko picked up the win in his professional debut, he's a twenty-year old Washington property from Novokuznetsk, Russia. Saw on the 'net where McCaskey defeated York in the tournament championship game at JPM, that's a quality win over an excellent opponent as the boys improve to 7-2 on the season. Strange how this season has worked out so far: the Red Tornado played nine games in December, six at home and I missed four of the six. In the new year we'll play thirteen games and I'll only miss two (both on the road). There was talk of snow on Saturday, it arrived in the morning and came heavier in the early afternoon. I was able to get to Quarryville and lunch with Jenny but by the time I was back home in the afternoon I was more than happy to be there. The snow ended later in the day, I spent the evening at home watching college football and listening to the Royals game in Trenton. The Royals came from behind to win 3-2 wrapping up the 2012 portion of the schedule at 23-7-2 (including a 13-3 mark at home). The club's first home game in the new year is on January 5th against Elmira. Take care, thanks for reading.