April 23-27

Let's get the bad news out of the way first: the Royals' hockey season is over. The boys went to Fort Wayne with a 1-1 series tie and lost all three games, the final defeat coming in double-overtime on Sunday evening. Credit must be given where it is due, the Fort Wayne Komets were a #8 seed in name only. In the five games the Royals scored just eight goals, two of those were empty-netters. The Ks underwent a roster makeover down the stretch and it all jelled together at the right time. The ECHL hasn't had a repeat champion in twenty years and maybe there's a reason why. Just winning a title is tough enough, successfully defending it especially at the minor-pro level is exponentially more difficult. 2014 was ultimately not the Royals' year but what happened in '13 is indelible and cannot be changed. We'll see what happens when the '14-15 season starts in October. On Wednesday we returned to Reservoir Park as the street hockey week continued with three games. In crossover action Dominion Pizza defeated Brendee's and 915 Cafe downed the Misfits, in the night's West game JBE Auto Transport beat McCleary's Pub. The week wrapped up on Thursday with the makeup games rescheduled from Tuesday the 15th, we had one East game, two Wests and a crossover. In that order the Sandbaggers beat Dominion Pizza, the Misfits defeated McCleary's Pub and the BallBlasters vanquished the Underdogs. The crossover game saw 915 Cafe over JBE Auto Transport. Week #3 gets underway on Monday and believe it or not they are calling for an all-day rain on Tuesday. The weekend was quiet outside of a Saturday visit with Jenny and keeping tabs with the Royals in Indiana. Take care, thanks for reading.