January 25-26

Made it out to the mall on Monday morning for lunch, the parking lots had been plowed but they were still icy in spots and the mall itself was much quieter than normal. Talked to Jenny in the afternoon, she and her mother were not going to the evening's game at the Arena. Jenny had a early wake-up call for Tuesday morning and she wasn't feeling well so it was better for her to stay in and get some rest. Jamie Burkholder joined me for the trip north, he wanted to go to the game on Saturday but the weather ruined those plans. The drive from Lancaster to Reading was no issue at all, the highways were in good shape which is more than could be said for the streets in either city. This was a rare Monday night game at the Arena which was made necessary thanks to the weekend weather, it was the second game of the back-to-back with the Brampton Beast. The clubs met twice in Brampton in December with both games requiring overtime, Friday's game at the Arena also needed extra time. On this night the teams again battled past regulation but how it happened was cause for discussion. The Beast took the lead in the first period and extended it to 2-0 in the second, Yannick Tifu got the Royals on the board just before the end of the period. In the third Pavel Padakin pulled the Royals even, late in the period an apparent Royals go-ahead score was disallowed due to incidental contact with the Brampton goaltender. In the final moments of regulation the Royals successfully killed a Brampton power-play to send the game into OT. Immediately from the opening faceoff the Beast were awarded another PP chance and cashed it in for the 3-2 win. The Royals gain a point in the standings but it was a frustrating way to lose nonetheless. The team's mark stands at 18-16-7, 10-9-3 at home. The new calendar year has not been kind to the club, the record thus far in January is just 3-5-2. The boys finish the month with three on the road, the next home date is on February 3. McCaskey's basketball game on Monday was postponed and reset for Wednesday the 27th, that's good for me but it sets up a back-to-back since we also play on Thursday. Jenny's business in town on Tuesday ended up being cancelled after she had arrived on the access van, I took her home and we did our midweek date a day early. Take care, thanks for reading.