March 22-24

Friday night at the Arena for the start of a busy weekend, the Royals were at home for three games in three days. We had one of these back in December, this was the second and last for the season (and for me it's two too many). The Newfoundland Growlers got things started on Friday for the opener of a back-to-back, on this night the Royals built a 3-0 first-period lead on goals from Adam Schmidt, Alex Roos and Josh MacDonald. In the second period Schmidt scored his second of the night between two Growler tallies, at the intermission the Royals led 4-2. Brayden Low's third-period strike was the only score in the third as the boys wrapped up a 5-2 win. On Saturday Jenny and her mother made their first visit to The Hotel, in the evening we were back downtown for the rematch. The Royals again took an early lead on a score from newcomer Matt Pohlkamp (third-year man from Bowling Green State University). The second period followed the same pattern as Friday, the Growlers scored twice around a goal by once-and-current Royal Kevin Goumas (a member of the '15-16 club, back in North America after stints in Sweden and Austria). The 2-2 tie held through the third period and overtime, in the OT shootout Newfoundland prevailed two goals to one and took the game 3-2. The long weekend finished on a high note on Sunday, the Worcester Railers were in town for the first time since opening weekend back in October. On this day the visitors scored first but from there on it was all Royals. Michael Huntebrinker tied the game in the first, Brayden Low's score in the second gave the Royals a 2-1 lead after two. In the third Adam Schmidt gave the club some breathing room, Kevin Goumas' empty-netter salted away a 4-1 win. Jamie Phillips was the goalie of record for all three games as the club picked up five of six points in the standings and kept playoff hopes alive. The overall mark is 29-28-10 (13-15-5 at home) and if playoffs started right now the club would be on the outside looking in. There are five games left on the schedule and a lot of work to be done if the club is to avoid missing the postseason for the first time since 2009. Time will tell. Take care, thanks for reading.