Wednesday lunch with Jenny and her mother, in the afternoon we were all together on The Road North for the first time since November 21. The Royals had not played anywhere since December 10, after five postponements (four at home) the club was finally back on the ice at the Arena. The Adirondack Thunder was the opponent for the first of their nine scheduled appearances. Cam Strong's goal in the game's second minute gave the Royals a 1-0 lead but the visitors from the North Country tallied twice within forty seconds to go up 2-1 before the game was three minutes old. Midway through the period Dominic Cormier lit the lamp to tie the score, late in the period Mike Crocock (not known as a goal-scorer) gave the Royals a 3-2 advantage. In the second period the Royals extended the lead to 5-2 on goals from Trevor Gooch (back from a stint in Italy in '20-21) and Brayden Low, the Thunder rallied in the third but never drew even, Hayden Hawkey was the winning goaltender in the 5-4 Royals victory. The calendar year ended with a 3:00 Friday New Years Eve game at the Arena, the Worcester Railers visited for the first of eight scheduled appearances. This was a day for rescheduled promotions, the Royals wore holiday-themed sweaters (originally planned for December 18) and it was also the annual Teddy-Bear-Toss game (reset from December 11). On this day the teams battled through two periods of scoreless hockey, four minutes into the third Patrick McNally scored the "teddy-bear" goal giving the Royals a 1-0 lead. At the six-minute mark Thomas Ebbing upped the lead to two, that would prove to be the last score of a 2-0 Royals win. Newly acquired goaltender Tristan Cote-Cazenave (from the University of Quebec Trois Rivieres) picked up the shutout victory in his professional debut. The Royals finish the 2021 portion of the schedule at 10-6-5 overall, 6-1-2 at the Arena. As it stands right now (and the only thing for sure is Nothing's For Sure) the club plays its next two on the road, we're back home on January 7. Thanks for reading, my friends. We'll catch you on the other side in MMXXII, see you there.
