November 22-24

Friday night on Penn Street as the Royals' six-game homestand continued, the Newfoundland Growlers were in town for a three-in-three weekend. This is the only one of these on the Royals home schedule and nobody is especially anxious to have any more, they generally only occur between teams separated by extreme geographical distance (for the obvious reasons the Growlers' schedule features many of them). In the Friday opener the Royals prevailed 5-3, goal scorers included Trevor Yates, Corey Mackin, rookie Max Willman (Boston University product), Ralph Cuddemi and team captain Garrett Mitchell (nine-year pro with a ton of AHL experience). Saturday night was Hockey Fights Cancer night, the Royals wore sweaters of a lighter shade of purple in support of the cause (head coach Kirk MacDonald is a cancer survivor). Brayden Low scored twice and Ralph Cuddemi lit the lamp once but the Royals lost in overtime 4-3, Kirill Ustemenko started in net on both Friday and Saturday. It rained overnight into Sunday morning, around 10:00 or so it was snowing and the grassy areas were white. By the time I was on the road in the afternoon the precipitation was all over, the roads were dry and the grassy areas were almost bare as well. At the Arena the game was all Royals from the word go, Ralph Cuddemi continued his hot hand with two goals in the first period to give the Good Guys a 2-0 lead. Newfoundland got on the board in the second, late in the period the Royals scored three goals in just over a minute. Cuddemi completed his hat-trick to make it 3-1, thirty-four seconds later newcomer Thomas Ebbing (three-year pro from Troy, Michigan) found the net and thirty-two seconds after that rookie Trevor Gooch (from Colorado College) notched his first as a professional to put the Royals up 5-1. In the third period Cuddemi potted his fourth goal (and sixth of the weekend), Corey Mackin added a late marker to wrap up a resounding 7-2 victory. Felix Sandstrom started in goal (back in the lineup from an injury absence) and earned the win. Cuddemi becomes the fourth player in club history to score four times in a single game, he joins Shay Stephenson (2005), Chris Blight (2007) and Daniel Steiner (2010) with that distinction. The Royals stand at 12-4-3 (8-1-1 at home), they have off until the Toledo Walleye visit on Black Friday. Take care, thanks for reading..