November 7-8

Up and at it early on Saturday, we were in downtown Reading at the Arena in the afternoon for the start of a busy weekend. It was the annual Military Appreciation date on the Royals schedule, the first order of business was the Army-Navy game at 1:30. The club teams from West Point and Annapolis met at the Arena in 2014 with the Cadets victorious, on this day the Midshipmen avenged that loss with a 4-1 win. At 7:00 the Royals took the ice for the first game of a back-to-back against the newly-minted Greenville Swamp Rabbits. Greenville, South Carolina was in the ECHL from 1998 to 2006 as the Grrrowl (spelling is correct), from 2010 through 2015 as the Road Warriors and now as the Swamp Rabbits (a mammal apparently indigenous to the southeastern part of the country). Nicknames notwithstanding this night was all Royals as they took it 5-1. Justin Crandall lit the lamp in the first period, in the second Mike Pereira and Adam Comrie extended the lead to 3-0. The Rabbits got on the board before the period ended but goals from Matt Hatch and Robbie Czarnik put the game away for winning goalie Connor Knapp. On Sunday the Royals completed the sweep, goals by Crandall and Yannick Tifu gave the club a 2-0 first-period lead. The second period was scoreless, in the third stanza the Royals put it away on scores by Hatch, rookie Joe Rehkamp (from St. Cloud State University) and Maxim Lamarche. Connor Knapp got the start in goal for the second straight day and posted his first shutout of the season (and the club's second, Martin Ouellette had one on the road in October). The club's record stands at 5-3, the Wheeling Nailers come to town on Wednesday the 11th. Take care, thanks for reading.