The last week of February had little to recommend it, we're in that time of year where high school basketball is in the rear-view mirror and spring activities are not yet even visible on the horizon. The Royals went 4-0-1 on a very challenging road trip, on Wednesday the 2nd the boys returned home for a makeup date with the Worcester Railers. In December we had four home dates postponed thanks to The Circumstances, three of them were on one three-in-three weekend with Worcester. This was the first of what will be eleven home games in March, four each against Worcester and Adirondack with Norfolk visiting twice and Wheeling once. On this night at the Arena the Royals took two leads and were caught both times. The first period was scoreless, early in the second Patrick Bajkov found the net to put the Royals ahead. After the Railers evened things up Garret Cockerill (a former Royal who returned to the club in late December) gave the Good Guys a 2-1 lead at the intermission. Early in the third Worcester tied the score, at the period's midpoint the Royals scored what would have been the lead goal but it was disallowed due to interference with the goaltender. The issue went unresolved through the seven-minute overtime period and the teams went to the dreaded overtime shootout. The last time a game at the Arena required the "skills competition" to determine a winner was in March of 2019 (a win over Wheeling), on this occasion the Royals outscored Worcester one goal to none and claimed the victory 3-2. Anthony Gagnon scored the lone goal in the SO, newly-added goaltender Logan Flodell (first-year pro from Acadia University) picked up the win in his home-ice debut. The Royals stand at 28-12-7 overall (14-4-3 at the Arena), our old friends from West Virginia visit for an originally-scheduled game on Saturday the 5th, Take care, thanks for reading.
