March 22-28

Not much going here of late on the home front, over the weekend the Royals finished the road portion of the regular season schedule. The club went 4-0 on the trip to finish at 20-11-5 on road ice, in the process they cemented first place overall in the ECHL's Eastern Conference. There was some light snow on Monday morning but it didn't last, by the evening hours it was all but gone. On Wednesday Jenny had an appointment in Willow Street, the access van took her there and I took her home. On Thursday she and her mother were along as we went north on 222 for the first time in twelve days, the Royals hosted the Trenton Titans in the season's next-to-last home game. With the club having clinched the top spot and the Titans out of contention this had all the feel of a glorified exhibition, the Royals lost 6-4. Trenton took a 4-1 lead into the third period before the Royals mounted a rally but it wasn't enough. Barry Almeida (back from the AHL) scored twice for the home team, Kirk MacDonald and Stanislav Galiev added single markers. Brandon Anderson started in goal making his first appearance in five weeks, he's been nursing an injury. He appeared to aggravate it in the second period and had to leave the game, Riley Gill played the third period in relief and took the tough-luck loss. Between injuries and promotion the Royals have utilized eight different goaltenders thus far, at this point it would appear that Gill will be the playoff starter. Since he was acquired in late February the club has gone 11-3-0, ten of those wins belong to Gill. Who the Royals will play in the first round of playoffs is anybody's guess, the bottom four playoff qualifiers are closely bunched and there are many possibilities. The regular season wraps ups on Saturday night, the Royals host Elmira in a game that will be important for the Jackals' postseason standings. Take care, thanks for reading.