December 21-22

Wednesday morning lunch in Quarryville, in the afternoon we made our way north to the Arena in Reading. The Royals' eight-game winning streak ended with an 0-2 road trip over the weekend, on this night the club hosted the Manchester Monarchs in the third of their seven regular-season visits. Manchester scored early in the first and again in the second to go up 2-0, midway through the period Matt Wilkins lit the lamp to pull the Royals within one. The Monarchs retook a two-goal advantage late in the period, in the late going of the third Florian Iberer's goal made it 3-2 but a Manchester empty-netter in the closing seconds put the lid on the 4-2 decision. The loss is a third straight for the Royals and drops the club's mark to 14-11-2, 6-4 at the Arena. The most disturbing news of the night may involve goaltender Mark Dekanich who left the game due to injury in the second period. With Martin Ouellette on recall to the AHL Phantoms the Royals recently added second-year pro Drew Fielding (from the University Of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota) to the roster, he finished the game and acquitted himself well. Should Dekanich miss any significant time Fielding may be counted on to carry the load, time will tell. The Royals stay at home to host the Adirondack Thunder on Friday the 23rd. Saw on the Internet where the McCaskey boys earned their first win with a 64-27 blowout of Penn Manor in Millersville, hopefully this signals a turnaround of the team's fortunes. On Thursday night I was at JPM in a non-working capacity, the girls basketball team was playing a rare home game on an off-night for the boys. Wilson HS was the opponent, anytime we play a Berks County school I invariably see someone I know and this night was no different. A member of the Royals management team lives in the Wilson school district, his daughter is a senior on the basketball team and one of their top players. He was there with his wife (who I have also known for many years) and their other daughter, we were kidding about how he saw me at hockey in Reading on Wednesday, basketball in Lancaster on Thursday and hockey upcoming on Friday (we just can't get away from one another). It was a good night for the McCaskey girls with both the JV and varsity squads recording victories. Take care, thanks for reading.