February 23-26

The latter part of the week was uneventful except for Saturday lunch with Jenny, on Sunday we were back at the Arena for hockey under very unusual circumstances. Earlier in the month one of Reading's more celebrated civic leaders passed away, his memorial service was held on this day in the arena because of the expected huge turnout. It was set for 1:00, the hockey game was pushed back to 6:00 to accommodate it. We arrived at 4:00, at that point the service had been over for only a short time. The arena crew was busy installing the glass and getting ready to remove the floor from the ice, I was informed that game time had been pushed back an extra hour to 7:00. The Greenville Swamp Rabbits were the opponent, back in town fresh from a Friday/Saturday set in Norfolk. The Royals entered the night on a two-game slide (a Wednesday loss to Greenville at home and a Friday L in Glens Falls), on this night the downbeat reached three with another frustrating loss. Greenville scored first and carried that 1-0 lead into the second period, Olivier Labelle's goal early on tied the game at one each. The Rabbits retook the lead but scores by Mike Marcou (back in the lineup after an extended injury absence) and Mike Pereira gave the Royals a 3-2 advantage at the game's midpoint. From there the game turned on a dime, two Greenville scores thirty seconds apart late in the period put the Royals behind and two more in the third put the punctuation on a 6-3 Greenville win. Martin Ouellette was the goalie of record as the club's mark drops to 31-20-3, 16-11-0 at home. The Royals are at the three-quarter pole for the season, fifty-four games played equally divided between home and road. They travel to Elmira on the 28th for the completion of that suspended game, the next home date is Friday March 3 which begins a three-in-three at home for that weekend. Take care, thanks for reading.