November 27-28

Friday night at the Arena for the start of a busy weekend. This was the first of our four sets of three-in-three at home, we have two more in January and the last one in March. The Greenville Swamp Rabbits were the opponent for their final two visits of the season, the last time they were in town they were swept by the Royals in two straight but this time around it was different. On Friday the Royals lost in lackluster fashion 6-3. Mike Pereira, Brandon Alderson and Justin Crandall scored the goals, newcomer Adam Morrison (one-time Flyers draft selection) was the goaltender of record. The Royals added Morrison earlier in the week with the recall of both Connor Knapp and Martin Ouellette to the AHL Phantoms. On Saturday the Swamp Rabbits completed the sweep with a 4-3 shootout victory. The Royals took two separate one-goal leads thanks to Joe Rehkamp and Robbie Czarnik but found themselves trailing 3-2 in the third. Mike Pereira knotted the game in the final moments of regulation and set the stage for overtime. Over the summer the NHL adopted 3-on-3 overtime, the AHL and ECHL followed suit and reaction to the "helter-skelter" nature of the format has been largely positive. Nothing was resolved in the five-minute 3-on-3, in the shootout Greenville outscored the Royals one goal to none to claim the win. Adam Morrison was once again the goalie of record. The Royals have a quick turnaround (as do we all) for Sunday afternoon, the Wheeling Nailers visit for a 4:00 start. Take care, thanks for reading.