March 4-5

Back at the Arena on Saturday night as the marathon weekend continued with Monarchs/Royals Round #2. This was the organization's Autism Awareness night, the club wore special sweaters that were auctioned for the cause. We refrained from using the goal horn and had the sound system's volume at a lower level, I even attempted to be less bombastic although I don't feel I'm terribly egregious in that area to begin with. On this night the visitors from New Hampshire scored early in the second period to take a 1-0 lead, midway through the stanza Mike Pereira lit the lamp to draw the Royals even. The deadlock remained in place as the game moved into overtime, in the extra session Ryan Penny found the net to give the Royals a crucial 2-1 victory. On Sunday we were back at it early, the annual Battle Of The Badges faced off at 1:30. This game began in 2006 and has always been between the Reading Fire vs Police Departments, for this edition a new wrinkle was introduced as the first-responders from Reading/Berks played together against a similar squad from the Allentown/Lehigh Valley area. It was an entertaining game, the Reading team won it 8-6. At 5:00 the Norfolk Admirals made the third of their five appearances and another low-scoring game was in store. Goals by Matt Wilkins in the first period and Matt Willows in the second staked the home team to a 2-0 lead, in the third Norfolk got on the board but could not notch the equalizer. Mark Dekanich picked up his second win of the weekend, he was in goal on Saturday night as well. The long weekend ends with the club's mark at 34-21-3, 18-12-0 at home. The boys play the next three on the road, we're back home on Tuesday the 14th (and I'm sure we'll all be recovered by then). Take care, thanks for reading.