January 10-11

Wednesday night hockey at the Arena as the Worcester Railers returned for a third consecutive appearance. When teams oppose one another as frequently as these have (four times in eight days including a game in Worcester) one would expect the hate factor to be well-established but on this night there were just two minor penalties called, one against each club. The Railers scored first before Nolan Zajac replied for the Royals, in the second period the clubs again traded scores with Chris McCarthy lighting the lamp for the home team. The 2-2 tie was broken midway through the third on a goal by Alex Krushelnyski (back from a stint with the Phantoms), in the closing moments Matt Willows hit the empty net to clinch the 4-2 victory for winning goalie John Muse. The Royals improve to 14-6 at home and 20-15-2 overall, we're back home on the 12th to host Adirondack. Not much happening on Thursday outside of the usual morning run and an afternoon visit to basketball practice at McCaskey to drop off the scorebooks since I'll be absent from the game on Friday. Take care, thanks for reading.