January 20-22

Friday evening: back in downtown Reading, the Royals hosted the Adirondack Thunder in the fourth of six scheduled meetings at the Arena. The club received some reinforcements from the AHL Phantoms for this game, defenseman Reece Willcox and forward Radel Fazleev were in the starting lineup. This was the third of the organization's "Flyer Fridays", two-time Stanley Cup winner Orest Kindrachuk was in the house signing autographs (former Flyer Doug Crossman had visited on December 30 and Bill Clement on January 6). In the game itself the Royals took an early lead on a goal by Reece Willcox assisted by Matt Willows and Matt Wilkins (Willcox from Willows and Wilkins, say that three times rapidly). The Thunder tied the game midway through the first period, that 1-1 score stayed in effect as regulation time expired. The Royals were on a power play as overtime began and wasted no time cashing it in, Jesper Pettersson's shot from the right circle locked down Sweet Victory 2-1. It is the Royals' first overtime win on home ice since the first game of the Kelly Cup Finals in 2013 (!!!!) and the first win past regulation at the Arena since a shootout win over the Indy Fuel in April 2014. In other words: It's Been Awhile. On Saturday the Wheeling Nailers came to town for the last of their three regular season dates. This night was the annual Penn State THON night, one of the major fundraising dates on the home schedule. The game was another low-scoring tight-checking affair, it was scoreless until the Nailers broke through with two quick goals late in the second period. The Royals got on the board late in the game thanks to a Matt Willows score but Wheeling was able to hold on and escape with a 2-1 win. Martin Ouellette was the Royals' goalie of record for both games. The weekend split brings the club to the midpoint of the home schedule at 12-6-0, the overall mark checks in at 22-14-2. The team had a brutal early-season schedule with thirteen of the first sixteen on the road, after a 6-8-2 start the club is 16-6-0 in its last twenty-two games. The boys play two on the road during the coming week, the next home date is on Saturday the 28th. Take care, thanks for reading.