March 24-26

Friday evening: back at the Arena for a weekend back-to-backer with the Adirondack Thunder making their final regular-season appearances. Before the game Jenny found out that the party she helped out on Wednesday refused medical treatment at the hospital, she was upset about it and felt like she had wasted her time trying to help. I told her that she did what any decent human being would have done, what the other party does from there is not her problem. It's like the old saying about leading a horse to water but you can't make them drink. In the game itself the visitors from upstate New York took a 1-0 lead into the third period, midway through the Royals pulled even on a score by Ryan Penny. The deadlock remained into overtime, in the final seconds of OT Adirondack broke through for the clincher and the 2-1 win. Mark Dekanich was the goalie of record for the Royals and deserved a better fate. On Saturday it was Scout Night at the Arena, it took two separate stoppages in play for me to get all the various troops in attendance verbally acknowledged. On this night the Royals went up 1-0 on a score from Derik Johnson, ADK replied with two straight and carried that advantage into the final period. Matt Willows found the net early on to tie matters at 2-2 and for the second straight night the game required extra time to determine the outcome. In overtime both teams had their chances, Matt Willows was responsible for thwarting a Thunder breakaway opportunity. In transition Matt found Steven Swavely who made no mistake scoring the OT GWG and giving the Royals the 3-2 decision. The weekend split (literally, since each team earned three points out of four available) puts the Royals at 37-24-5, 19-13-1 at home. The club has off until the last day of the month when the Norfolk Admirals visit. Take care, thanks for reading.