Wednesday, November 30, 2016
November 28-30
The new week began with a morning visit to McCaskey, school was closed but the basketball team had a 10:00 scrimmage against Susquehanna Township (from suburban Harrisburg). It was already underway when I arrived and I left before it ended because I had other stops on the agenda. I went to the health campus for some blood work and to the mall from there for lunch. Rain moved into the area late Monday night, Tuesday was a wet day and Wednesday wasn't much better. My mother had a followup appointment with her eye doctor on Tuesday, on Wednesday I had my usual lunch visit in Quarryville. In the evening the Royals finished the month with a game at the Arena, the Wheeling Nailers were the opponent. Another ex-Royal was in attendance, this time it was Riley Armstrong (who played the first half of the '15-16 season in Reading before announcing his retirement) as an assistant coach with the Nailers. Jenny and Helen had other commitments on their calendar and couldn't make the game, my mother and her friend Norma used the tickets in their absence. The Royals began in the ECHL in 2001-2002, only seven cities in the league at that time are still active. Some have had breaks in their lineage but Wheeling has played straight through, the Nailers are celebrating their 25th anniversary season in West Virginia. On this night at the Arena Olivier Labelle cashed in on an power play to give the Royals a 1-0 lead just over a minute after play started. Wheeling tied the score late in the period and went up 2-1 early in the second, as time was winding down the Royals' Tyrell Goulbourne (on assignment from the Phantoms) was involved in an altercation and was decisively victorious. Tyrell is a second-year pro who has developed a reputation as someone not to be trifled with, he had seventy-five penalty minutes in the AHL in '15-16. After the fight the momentum shifted, the third period was reminiscent of the Sunday game against Cincinnati. Five minutes in Nick Luukko found the net to tie it 2-2, four minutes after that Ian Watters tipped in a point shot by Luukko to put the Royals ahead. Three minutes later Matt Wilkins bagged an insurance goal, from there Mark Dekanich closed the door on a 4-2 Royals win. The club has won four straight to improve the record to 10-8-2, 4-3 at home. The boys play two on the road over the weekend, we're back home on Friday the 9th. Take care, thanks for reading.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
November 26-27
Saturday night at the Arena as the Royals hosted the Cincinnati Cyclones in the first of a two-game series. The teams have been infrequent opponents in recent years (this was the 'Clones first visit to Reading since November of 2013) but there is a history built largely on playoff meetings. The Royals lost to Cincinnati in the 2008 and 2010 postseasons but were victorious in 2011 and in 2013 on the road to the Kelly Cup. Former Royal Patrick Wellar (a key member of the championship club) was in the building for this series as a Cyclones assistant coach. The Royals finally had a chance to get some quality practice time at home during the week, it paid off with the win in Elmira on Friday and two huge home-ice victories over the Cyclones to wrap up the weekend. In the opener on Saturday the Royals started strong, goals by Olivier Labelle and Matt Wilkins made it 2-0 in the first ten minutes. Cincinnati replied with one in the first and one in the second to tie the score, early in the third Justin Crandall lit the lamp to put the Royals back up 3-2. With three minutes left Labelle took a penalty for roughing but the Royals were able to kill it. As he left the penalty box Labelle outraced a Cyclone defender to the puck and hit the empty net to salt away a tough 4-2 decision, Mark Dekanich got the start in goal and recorded the win. On Sunday the club struggled out of the gate as the Cyclones went ahead 2-0 early in the second period. Late in the period the Royals were awarded a power play, Kevin Sundher's goal with three seconds left on the clock made it 2-1 at the intermission. That goal lit a fire under the team for the third period, they scored three goals in the first six minutes. Nick Luukko's goal tied the score, fifty-seven seconds later Matt Wilkins gave the Royals the lead. Justin Crandall made it 4-2 a minute and-a-half later, the three scores coming in a 2:22 stretch of play. Late in the period Mike Pelech added an insurance marker, the final score was 5-2 for winning goaltender Martin Ouellette. The weekend sweep improves the record to 9-8-2, 3-3 at home. The boys stay home for a date with Wheeling on Wednesday the 30th. Take care, thanks for reading.
Friday, November 25, 2016
November 21-25
The cold and vicious wind velocity was still out in force on Monday, in the evening we were at the rink for the start (and end) of the season's tenth week. The Misfits defeated the Riot to claim the West Division championship three games to one. As the players were arriving in the pregame several of them commented on the cold and wind, I told them that on nights like this we find out who the hearty people are. One player called it the very definition of insanity and to be truthful it would have been hard to argue the point, I believe everyone was just as glad to have the series ended because a potential game #5 on Tuesday would have been played under similar conditions. The season began on September 19 and ended sixty-three days and seventy-six games later. The middle part of the week was quiet save for Wednesday lunch with Jenny, Thursday was a holiday that felt a lot like a Sunday with three different pro football games on TV. On Friday the Royals finished a four-game road trip with a come-from-behind win in Elmira. The early-season schedule has been brutal (thirteen of seventeen on the road) but things are going to start evening out, the club plays its next three at home with Cincinnati coming in for a two-gamer over the weekend and Wheeling in town on the 30th. Take care, thanks for reading.
Sunday, November 20, 2016
November 14-20
Monday night at the rink as we began week #9 of the fall street hockey season. The evening featured the start of one series and the end of another, the Steamers won the East Division championship with a fourth-game victory over the UniLords. Team names may change from season to season depending on sponsorship deals (or sometimes due to personal egos or agendas) but most of the teams in our league have a basic nucleus that stays together for a good period of time. This marks the first time since the fall of 2011 that the UniLords (by any name) failed to win their division's championship so for most of the Steamers this is a victory that was a long time coming. The West Division began its final on Monday, the Misfits won the first two games but the Riot stayed alive with a Thursday night victory, game #4 is on Monday the 21st. The rest of the week was otherwise relatively quiet except for seeing Jenny for lunch on Wednesday and Friday, we did Friday instead of Saturday because she was in town for a medical appointment. The most noteworthy part of the weekend was a stunning change in the weather. On Saturday morning I stopped in at McCaskey where the boys' basketball team was working out, the winter practice season actually began on Friday. I gave Coach Powell a list of the dates I will miss because of hockey, as it stands there are seven of them including the opener on December 10. The morning was very warm but in late afternoon it got very dark, the winds picked up and it rained for about an hour. On Sunday temperatures were in the 40s and the winds continued from the northwest with gusts over forty miles per hour, I was more than happy to be inside since there was absolutely no reason to be anywhere else. Take care, thanks for reading.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
November 12-13
The Royals completed their season-long eight-game road trip with a Friday night loss in Wheeling, the final mark was 4-3-1 which is about as good as anyone might have expected. On this weekend the boys FINALLY returned home for the first time since October 21. Saturday's activities at the Arena began at 2:00 with the third annual Veterans Appreciation Day Army/Navy game featuring the club teams from West Point and Annapolis. A crew of college officials worked the game, one of them spelled his name in syllabic form so I could accurately pronounce it. The name was "No-see-kay Own-yah-mo-bim" and I have no idea what the correct spelling may have been, in my business it doesn't much matter. Navy won 5-1, since losing the 2014 inaugural game it is their second consecutive victory in the series. At 7:00 the Royals hosted the Manchester Monarchs and suffered a frustrating 6-4 loss. Goals from Mike Pereira and Ryan Penny had the club ahead in the second period but the Mons potted three straight to go up 4-2. In the third period Union College product Matt Wilkins brought the Royals back within one, Manchester answered back just twenty seconds later to make it 5-3. In the final minute Kevin Sundher (five-year pro from Surrey, BC) lit the lamp but a Monarch empty-netter in the dying seconds ended the game, Martin Ouellette was the Royals' goalie of record. On Sunday the Atlanta Gladiators visited for the first time since March of 2014 (when the franchise was still known as "Gwinnett" in honor of the Georgia county it calls home). As maddening as Saturday's game had been it proved to be a mere warmup for what happened on this day. The Glads took a quick 2-0 lead in the first before newcomer Florian Iberer (SEVENTEEN-YEAR veteran from Graz, Austria) got the Royals on the board. The teams would trade the next four goals with Robbie Czarnik and Mike Pereira scoring for the Royals, another Atlanta score late in the second period gave the Glads a 5-3 lead entering the final period. In the third period former Manchester Monarch Michael Boivin brought the club back within one, Steven Swavely tied the score and moments later Nick Luukko found the net to give the Royals a 6-5 lead. The Gladiators did not go away, they tied it up at 6-6 with 1:07 to go and overtime seemed likely but there was still one round left in the chamber. In the final seconds Atlanta got a break in the Royals zone and scored with THREE-TENTHS OF A SECOND left on the clock. Mark Dekanich took the hard-luck 7-6 loss but deserved a better fate. The club's record drops to 6-6-1 with the next four games back on the road. The team returns home on the 26th, by then the boys will have played thirteen of seventeen on the road (better than one-third of the thirty-six away games on the schedule completed by that point). It all evens out by April but obviously that's a long way off. Take care, thanks for reading.
Friday, November 11, 2016
November 7-11
Street hockey playoffs began on Monday and continued on Tuesday and Thursday, by week's end the Steamers led the UniLords two games to one in the best-of-five East Division championship and both of the best-of-three West semifinals had been completed. The Misfits eliminated the Owls in two straight games, the Riot prevailed over the Blues in a series that went the distance. Playoffs continue on Monday the 14th with the Riot-Misfits series starting fresh and the Steamers with a chance to clinch their series. The major events of the week happened away from the rink and they were not entirely pleasant. My mother had an appointment on Tuesday morning, on the way home she was involved in an automobile accident. She was uninjured (except for some soreness later in the week) but the vehicles were not, there was significant damage to both hers and the other party's. We called the service center we use and described the damage, they recommended a body shop they do business with. My mother's car was towed there, later in the week the proprietor called and said their was damage to the chassis underneath and it would be cost-prohibitive to repair it.. He recommended a used car dealer he has been doing business with for years so we'll see what happens going forward. My mother is 82 and she gets around remarkably well for her age but there is the possibility she could lose her licence temporarily or perhaps altogether, it all depends how the state chooses to handle it. On Friday we went to the shop to clean out her car and sign over the title so they can dispose of it, for the next little while I am going to be her wheels. As they say on TV: stay tuned. Take care, thanks for reading.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
November 4-6
Friday afternoon in the school library at McCaskey for the annual Athletic Hall-Of-Fame inductions, I attended largely because a classmate of mine from 1974 was one of the honorees. Denise Gobrecht was a three-sport athlete, she participated in field hockey, basketball and track-and-field. We were not in a lot of school classes together but we knew each other because of our involvement in athletics. She attended college at Lock Haven and later coached in the city school district. When I saw her at the ceremony I congratulated her, we embraced and I told her "classmates in '74, fellow Hall-Of-Famers now" (I was honored with induction into the Hall in 2014 but I generally don't make a big deal of it). Four others were inducted in addition to Denise, two of them posthumously. Jack Cassebaum was head football coach at McCaskey from 1969 to 1971, he passed on in 2015. LeRoy Duke wrestled at JPM in the 1940s and coached the sport for many years, he died in 2011. Also honored were Joe Ganse (class of 1971) who played football under "Coach Cass" and Edward "Champ" Hall (class of 1983), a former football and track star who has made his mark as a businessman in the Lancaster area. The HOF activities were still going when I had to take my leave to get prepared for the game at the stadium. The Red Tornado hosted Warwick in the season's final game and came out on the wrong end of a 17-0 decision. The club finishes 4-6 under first-year head coach Eric Spenser but the record at home was a disappointing 1-4. It takes any new coach time to put in a new system and the club improved as the season progressed, hopefully better times are ahead. Saw on the Internet where Lancaster Catholic finished their year at 7-3, in 2017 it will be a new start at LCHS with the opening of the rebuilt Rossmere Stadium. On Saturday we did our usual lunch date in Quarryville, Sunday marked the end of the street hockey league's regular season. Four games rained out on October 27 were on the docket, since it was a Sunday we started at 5:00 instead of the usual 6:15 weeknight start. As the night began three of the games had significance but the result of the first game resolved everything and rendered the rest of the night meaningless. For the record the Owls beat the Riot, the Misfits defeated the Pub Dawgs, the Steamers won over the Kings and the Blues downed the Hammerheads. Playoffs start on Monday the 7th with the East Division finals (Steamers vs UniLords) and the West semifinals (Owls-Misfits and Blues-Riot). Take care, thanks for reading.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
October 31-November 3
The tenth month of 2016 ended with a quiet Monday save for a morning visit to the health campus. My mother had a hearing test for which my presence was required, part of the process included what the doctor called "familiar-voice" recognition. We had no hockey at the rink in the evening because of it being trick-or-treat night in the city, we realized a long time ago that it's better to stay home on October 31 and let the troublemakers find another target. On Tuesday we started the new month with four games at the rink, winners on this night included the Misfits over the Blues, the Kings over the Pub Dawgs, the Steamers over the Riot and the UniLords over the Owls. On Wednesday morning Jenny and her mother were in Willow Street for medical appointments, I met them when they were done and we went to the shopping plaza before lunch. Thursday night at the rink featured four more games to close out week #7. On this night the Hammerheads beat the Kings, the Unilords defeated the Pub Dawgs, the Steamers outlasted the Owls and the Blues prevailed over the Riot via overtime shootout. The season was supposed to end on November 3 but there are four makeup games on Sunday the 6th, we plan to start playoffs on the 7th if the weather cooperates. Take care, thanks for reading.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)