There was snow in the forecast for Friday, it arrived late Thursday night and was gone by daybreak. I shoveled my front walk when I left for lunch, it wasn't much but it was wet and heavy. I turned 65 earlier in the week (an event so meaningless I didn't even bother to mention it when it occurred) and maybe trying to do that wasn't the smartest thing to do but it all went rather easily, the whole thing took about two minutes. Got word that McCaskey's basketball game at Hempfield was postponed to Saturday, that left me out once again because I was spending back-to-back nights at the Arena in downtown Reading. The Worcester Railers were the opponent for both dates marking their second and third of eight appearances. In the Friday opener the teams skated through a scoreless first period, early in the second Patrick Bajkov lit the lamp to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. The visitors from central Massachusetts rallied to carry a 2-1 lead int the game's closing minutes, with 2:30 on the clock defenseman Garrett Cecere (not a big goal-scorer) came through in the clutch to knot the score 2-2. Into overtime we went and it lasted all of sixteen seconds before Trevor Gooch split the defense and fired home the game-winner to the delight of his teammates and the Arena crowd. On Saturday the clubs met in the rematch on Wizards and Wands Night, a theme based on the well-known writings of author J.K. Rowling. On this night the Royals scored three goals within a four-minute span in the first period, Brayden Low scored the first and Patrick Bajkov scored the other two to give the club a 3-0 lead at the intermission. In the second period Worcester took advantage of an extended power play to close within 3-2 entering the final period. In the last three minutes of regulation time the Royals exploded for three goals to put the game away, Princeton University product Jackson Cressey scored an insurance goal which was followed by Grant Cooper's empty-netter making it 5-2. Patrick Bajkov finished out the scoring with thirty seconds left completing his hattrick and putting the lid on a tougher-than-it-looks 6-2 victory. Kirill Ustimenko (back from a stint between the AHL Phantoms and the NHL taxi squad in Philadelphia) played both nights in goal and picked up the two Ws. The weekend sweep improves the record to 12-7-5 and 8-1-2 at home, we're back on the ice on Wednesday the 12th versus Adirondack. There was other good news on Saturday, JPM won the rescheduled game at Hempfield 51-49. The boys play three games in the upcoming week beginning with a Tuesday date in Lebanon. Take care, thanks for reading.
