May 5

On the road early on Sunday afternoon as the ladies and I returned to the Sovereign Center. For a second consecutive game the Royals worked overtime and the result was once again to the good, a 3-2 victory to go up two games to none in the series. Cincinnati took a 1-0 lead in the first period, early in the second period Bobby Shea (the Game #1 overtime hero) continued his hot hand as he found the back of the net to draw the Royals even. It stayed 1-1 into the third period when the Royals finally got a chance to play with a lead, defenseman Dustin Stevenson (never known as a goal-scorer) lit the lamp to put the club ahead 2-1. The Cyclones battled back to tie matters at two as we headed into extra play. In game #1 it took almost thirty minutes of overtime to decide it, on this occasion  it took less than fourteen. The Royals carried play through most of the OT, it finally ended when Alex Berry (AKA "the Big Bearcat") took a feed from Kirk MacDonald and fired home the GWG. The victory was the club's fourth in OT in the playoffs thus far (against no losses), the Cyclones have been involved in six overtime games (3-3). Berry's effort earned him the game's #1 star, winning goalie Riley Gill was #2. The game started at 4:05 (our usual Sunday afternoon faceoff time) and ended at 6:59, clocking in exactly one hour shorter than Friday's game. The Royals will take the 2-0 series lead to Ohio for games on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. This finishes a stretch of four games in six days at home, the next possible home date is not until May 13. Take care, thanks for reading.