January 19-20

The storm system was long gone on Sunday morning, the first order of business was to clear the front sidewalk. There was a thin layer of ice in top of an even thinner layer of snow, once I broke a corner of it the job was done in about two minutes. I threw some salt down and the sun came out shortly thereafter, the residue melted down in good order. By the time I left for the Arena at 1:00 the sunshine was brilliant, the walk to the car and the drive itself were of no concern at all. On Penn Street at 4:00 the Royals hosted the Worcester Railers in the first of a two-game set. Although Worcester trails the Royals by fourteen points in the league standings the Railers have been a difficult opponent, they entered having won four of the clubs' five meetings thus far in '19-20. On this day the Royals took a 1-0 lead in the first on a score by Hayden Hodgson (three-year pro from Windsor, Ontario who recently returned from a lengthy injury absence), goals by Garrett Mitchell and Corey Mackin made it 3-0 after two periods. Worcester broke up Kirill Ustemenko's shutout bid early in the third but markers from Steven Swavely and Brayden Low (into the empty net) clinched a 5-1 Royals victory. On Monday afternoon the clubs met again at 1:00 as we hosted a Martin Luther King Day game for the first time since 2017. On this occasion the Railers scored first but in the second period the Royals forged ahead on goals by Mackin and Garret Cockerill to carry a 2-1 lead in to the final period. Midway through the period Worcester cashed in on a power play chance to tie the game setting the stage for sudden-death overtime. In the extra frame the Royals weathered a penalty kill successfully but moments later the Railers scored a disputed goal which was confirmed by replay for the game-winner, "Usti" took the tough 3-2 loss but deserved better. The Royals earned five of six points on the weekend and stand at 22-13-5 overall, 16-4-2 on home ice. The Newfoundland Growlers visit for a doubleheader starting on Friday the 24th. Take care, thanks for reading.