March 14-16

Wednesday night hockey in downtown Reading for the first home game since February 22. The Royals held their own during a very difficult road-heavy portion of the schedule, on this night the Fort Wayne Komets made their lone visit of the season for a non-divisional contest. The Ks are one of minor league hockey's longest-tenured franchises, the club began in the old International Hockey League in 1952. This game was a roller-coaster ride from start to finish, the Royals took three one-goal leads and were caught each time. Matt Willows scored three minutes in to make it 1-0, the Komets tied it early in the second. Thirty seconds later newcomer Viktor Liljegren scored his first goal as a professional, he recently finished his college career at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY where he was team captain. Midway through the period Fort Wayne evened matters at 2-2, in the late going Willows struck again to put the Royals back ahead. Early in the third the Komets tied it 3-3, they took their first lead of the night midway through. The Royals fought back to tie it 4-4 on Adam Schmidt's goal with five minutes left, from there the game slipped into overtime. In the extra session Fort Wayne got a break into the offensive zone and netted the winner as the Royals lost in OT on home ice for the first time in '17-'18. The goaltender of record for the Royals was Anthony Stolarz, he is with the club on injury rehab assignment from the Flyers. Stolarz (aka Stolie The Goalie) was drafted in 2012 and turned pro in 2014, he has played since then for the AHL Phantoms and has seven NHL games with the Flyers on his resume as well. This was his first game action in eleven months and he looked a little rusty at times but that was to be expected, he'll probably play our next game on the 17th and be evaluated from there. The Royals stand at 33-21-8 (19-9-1 at home), they stay home to host Brampton on the 17th. Take care, thanks for reading.