February 17-18

The busy weekend continued at the Arena on Saturday with weather circumstances adding a layer of intrigue. They were calling for a dusting to an inch arriving in late afternoon, our drive north from Lancaster was without issue except for a few flurries. The snow started in earnest around 6:00 or so, I looked outside between periods and had some legit concerns about the trip home. The snow was gone by game's end, the worst part of the drive home was just getting out of the city itself. Once we hit the highway there were no issues of any kind, I wasn't home any later than I may have been otherwise. The Saturday night game was our annual "Pink In The Rink" game for breast-cancer awareness, the Bramptom Beast was the opponent. An early score from Tyler Brown and a late marker by Nolan Zajac gave the Royals a 2-0 lead after one period. In the middle stanza the Beast potted three in a row before Matt Willows replied to make it 3-3 after two. Zajac's second goal of the night gave the Royals a 4-3 advantage in the third but Brampton rallied to take the lead, an empty-netter brought the final to 6-4. Mark Dekanich took the loss in net and deserved a better fate. On Sunday there was brilliant sunshine in the morning, we were back at it early for the annual Battle Of The Badges game at 12:30. The game began in 2006 as a matchup between the Reading Fire and Police, in 2017 it became a game between first responders from Reading/Berks County and their brethren from Allentown/Lehigh Valley. On this day the group from the Valley avenged their loss in '17 with a 3-2 win. At 4:00 the Wheeling Nailers took the ice for the last of their six regular-season visits. The Royals once again led 2-0 after one thanks to goals by Alex Krushelnyski and Matt Willows, in the second Brian Morgan, Steven Swavely and Nolan Zajac lit the lamp to make it 5-0. Krushelnyski finished the scoring with his second of the game midway through the third, the 6-0 whitewash was the second in as many appearances for winning goalie Branden Komm. He is the fifth goaltender in club history to post consecutive shutouts and the first to turn the trick in his first two appearances in a Royals uniform. The club improves to 29-20-3, 18-9-0 at home. The boys finish the February home schedule on Thursday the 22nd against Worcester. Take care, thanks for reading.