March 23

Wednesday morning lunch with Jenny and her mother in Quarryville, in the afternoon we headed north on 222. We traveled this way on Sunday as well but on this occasion we stopped in downtown Reading as the Royals (finally) returned home after sixteen days away. The club went 4-0-1 on the road trip, on this night the Kalamazoo Wings made their lone Arena appearance of the season and their first in better than a calendar year. This game was eerily similar to the game we saw in Allentown on Sunday, the K-Wings scored twice within thirty seconds late in the first period and added another at the game's midpoint for a 3-0 advantage. That score held into the third period, six minutes in Yannick Tifu got the Royals on the board. One minute later Brandon Alderson took a shot that ricocheted off both goalposts, the referee signaled "no goal" as play continued. At the next whistle the officials conferred with the goal judge, it was decided that the puck had crossed the goal line to put the Royals within one. With six minutes left a K-Zoo player took a major penalty for boarding, the Royals were unable to take advantage as the buzzer sounded on a frustrating 3-2 loss. Adam Morrison (back on the active roster after an extended injury absence) made his first start at home since December 19 and deserved a better fate. The goaltending carousel within the Flyers organization has been spinning rapidly in recent days, thanks to injuries in Philly and Allentown both Martin Ouellette and Connor Knapp are on recall to the Phantoms. The Royals' backup goaltender on this night was youngster Matt Skoff, he was signed to an amateur tryout agreement after finishing his collegiate career at Penn State University. This is the time of year when college players get a look-see in the ECHL in the hopes of winning a contract for the next season, guys like Justin Crandall and Joe Rehkamp came to Reading in that very manner. The Royals' mark stands at 32-24-9 (13-14-4 at home), the boys stay home for a date with Manchester on Friday the 25th. Take care, thanks for reading.