November 19-21

Friday afternoon on The Road North for the start of a busy weekend at the Arena. The Royals have five sets of back-to-back home dates plus five sets of three-in-three at home, this weekend was the first of those. The Newfoundland Growlers were in town from Atlantic Canada for games on Friday and Saturday. On Friday the visitors scored once in each period and carried a 3-0 lead into the final five minutes. Goals from Dominic Cormier and Thomas Ebbing made it interesting down the stretch but the Growlers held on for the 3-2 win. Saturday was Hockey Fights Cancer Night, the Royals wore special lavender-themed sweaters which were later auctioned for the cause. On this night the club fell 2-1 in overtime, Jacob Pritchard's third-period score was the lone tally for the Royals. Kirill Ustimenko (back from a stint with the AHL Phantoms) was goalie of record both nights and deserved a better fate. To illustrate how tight these games were: on both nights the game-winning goal scorer was #1 star with Usti and the opposing goalie alternating between #2 and #3. On Sunday we played our seventh home game and for the fifth time the Norfolk Admirals were the opponent. There was a good deal of hostility when the Ads visited the previous weekend but this day was tame by comparison, there were just eight minor penalties issued for sixteen total minutes evenly divided. Niagra University product Jared Brandt gave the Good Guys an early 1-0 lead, in the third period Jacob Pritchard upped the advantage to two. Norfolk got on the board with twelve minutes to go but the Royals were able to hold the fort and claim the tough 2-1 win, Three home games all decided by one goal with only eleven total goals scored. Recent acquistion Hayden Hawkey (third-year pro from Providence College) made his Royals debut and picked up the win in goal. The 1-1-1 weekend brings the home mark to 4-1-2, overall the club stands at 6-2-4. The boys play their next seven games on the road, the next home date is on December 11 versus Adirondack. As it stands right now that is the next major event on the calendar. Take care, thanks for reading.