February 2-3

At the Arena in downtown Reading for the weekend, the Royals hosted the Manchester Monarchs for a two-game set. Saturday night featured the annual Wall-Of-Honor festivities, longtime Royals broadcasters Mark Thompson and Pat Richards were the inductees. Mark was the club's play-by-play voice from 2005-2017, Pat has been the color commentator on home broadcasts since 2003. The pregame ceremonies were unfortunately the high point of the evening, offensive highlights were few and far between for the Royals. The visitors from New Hampshire scored once in the second period and two more in the third and made them stand up for a 3-0 win. It was the first time the club was shutout at home since a playoff loss to Manchester in April of 2018 and the first regular-season zero on home ice since January of '18. Andrew D'Agostini took the loss in net but could in no way be faulted. On Sunday the clubs matched up for a 2:00 faceoff (due to professional football's "big game" taking place at 6:30), the Royals responded in resounding fashion with a no-question-about-it 6-1 victory. Goals by Joe Houk and Adam Schmidt gave the club a 2-0 lead in the first four minutes, late in the period Frank DiChiara lit the lamp on a power play to make it 3-0. Brayden Low extended the lead to four in the second before the Monarchs got on the board, third-period scores from Jack Riley and newcomer Tyson Fawcett (fifth-year pro from Barrie, Ontario) put the cap on the win for goaltender Callum Booth. The weekend split finds the club at 20-16-8 overall, 10-10-4 at home. The Brampton Beast visit for a double-dip on Saturday the 9th and Monday the 11th. Take care, thanks for reading.