February 15-16

Saturday consisted of a morning errand run and nothing more since Jenny and I had done lunch on Friday, on Sunday we were all together for afternoon hockey at the Arena. The Royals had won on the road on Friday, on this day the Worcester Railers came to town for the fifth of their six visits. The Royals erected "The Picket Fence" (1-1-1) by scoring one goal in each period while at the other end of the ice Kirill Ustemenko built a brick wall in front his net, it all added up to a convincing 3-0 win. Brayden Low gave the Royals the only score they would need midway through the first period, early in the second Steven Swavely scored from in close to make it 2-0. In the closing moments the Railers pulled the goalie for the extra attacker, Thomas Ebbing's empty-net strike in the last minute of play sealed up the shutout victory. For "Usti" it is his second whitewash of the season and the fourth for the team overall. The victory runs the club's win streak to six straight and improves the club to 29-14-5 overall, 20-5-2 at home. This marks the second time in Kirk MacDonald's three seasons as head coach the team has won twenty games at home, it's the twelfth time this has been achieved in the franchise's nineteen-year history in Reading. If the postseason began today the Royals would be the division's #2 seed but there is still a lot of hockey to be played. The boys host Newfoundland (the current #1 division seed) on Friday the 21st with with Brampton (current #3) visiting on the 22nd. Take care, thanks for reading.