January 16-18

A quiet Thursday gave way to a busy Friday, in the afternoon we were on the road north to the Arena. The Royals hosted the Adirondack Thunder for the second of their three scheduled appearances in downtown Reading. The club's roster was fortified during the week with some new additions including "folk hero" Nick Niedert as emergency back-up goaltender (Felix Sandstrom is on recall to the AHL Phantoms). Trevor Gooch gave the Royals a 1-0 lead late in the first period, Corey Mackin extended the lead to two early in the second. The visitors from the North Country got one back later in the second, in the third Garrett Cockerill found the net to restore the Royals two-goal edge. The Thunder cashed in on a two-man advantage to make it 3-2 with fifteen minutes left, in the closing minutes with ADK skating with the extra attacker Mackin hit the empty net for the clincher as the Royals hung on for the 4-2 win. Kirill Ustemenko picked up the victory as the club improves to 15-4-1 at home and 21-13-4 overall, the boys host Worcester back-to-back on the 19th and 20th. Saw online where JPM won on Friday night, the boys beat Hempfield 72-55. Talked to Freddy via text message, he said it wasn't the prettiest win but he'll take it. The win is the club's eighth straight after a 3-4 start, the league mark is 7-1. JPM was scheduled to play in a showcase event at Reading HS on Saturday but Mother Nature changed the plans. There was a storm system in the forecast for Saturday, the game was actually postponed better than twenty-fours early on Friday afternoon. I was awake on Saturday morning before 7:00, at that point nothing had happened. By 9:30 there were flurries blowing around and the streets were wet, at 11:00 I went out for lunch and a few errands. I was back before 1:00, later in the day the precipitation turned into freezing rain. This is the second straight season (and the third in five years) the RHS showcase event was postponed, there was no immediate word on a possible makeup date. Take care, thanks for reading.