February 13-14

The basketball team practiced on Saturday morning, I stopped in and gave the coaches the scorebook since I'm absent on the 17th. It was bitterly cold and windy, temperatures were in the teens with wind chills below zero. We had our usual lunch in Quarryville, in the evening we were back in downtown Reading. The Royals opened a four-game homestand with the first of a back-to-back with the Adirondack Thunder on the annual "Pink In The Rink" night, the club wore special pink jerseys in honor of breast cancer awareness. This is a game Jenny and her mother look forward to each season, Helen is a breast cancer survivor. On this night the Royals broke on top in the first period on a score from Justin Crandall, in the second period Nick Luukko (first-year pro from the University Of Vermont) extended the lead to 2-0. Late in the period Joey Sides lit the lamp, in the third Robbie Czarnik scored the Royals' final goal. The Thunder broke up the shutout in the final  minute but the Royals claimed the 4-1 win for Martin Ouellette. On the way home we stopped for gas, I stood in the cold for about three minutes at the pump and could not wait to get back into the car and out of the wind. On Sunday it was somewhat warmer if you consider temps in the 20s and wind chills in the single digits "warmer". On this day the game was all Thunder right from the get-go, ADK scored twice in the first four minutes and carried that lead into the second period. Nick Luukko's second goal of the weekend got the Royals on the board but that was the lone score for the home team as the Thunder won by the same 4-1 score, Martin Ouellette was once again the Royals' goalie of record. The club's record stands at 24-19-7, 12-10-3 at home. If the playoffs began tomorrow the club would qualify but the season still has a long way to go. The homestand continues with the Manchester Monarchs coming to town on the 17th and 19th. Take care, thanks for reading.