February 12-16

The early part of the week had little going to recommend it, typical for the time of year where high school winter activities are over and the spring season hasn't started. On Friday the Royals played a home game for the first time in twenty-three days, the Cincinnati Cyclones were the opponent making their lone regular-season appearance at the Arena. Earlier in the week the Flyers lost a goaltender to injury, as a result of the "domino effect" the Royals went outside the organization to acquire goaltender Branden Komm via trade from the Manchester Monarchs. Komm is a four-year pro from Bentley University (Waltham, Massachusetts), as a Monarch back in December he defeated the Royals in a game at the Arena. He joins Mark Dekanich on the roster with John Muse on recall to the Phantoms. On this night Komm made his Royals debut a memorable one by recording a shutout but that was only half the story, at the other end the Royals' offense was on fire. Michal Huntebrinker scored in the first period, a five-goal salvo in the second put the game to bed. Goals by Steven Swavely, Matt Willows and Jimmy Devito put the Royals up by four, Huntebrinker's second of the night was followed by a marker from Nolan Zajac to make it 6-0 after two. Adam Schmidt lit the lamp twice in the third to bring the final to 8-0 as Komm picked up his first zero of the season and the team's fifth (Dekanich and Muse have two each). The team record stands at 28-19-3, 17-8-0 at home. This was the start of a busy and unusual weekend, our last three-in-three of the season (featuring three different opponents). The boys are at home Saturday versus Brampton and Sunday versus Wheeling with the annual Battle Of The Badges game thrown in for good measure. Take care, thanks for reading.