Earlier in the week we had temperatures in the 60s, on Wednesday morning it was raw and rainy. In the evening it was a hockey night at the Arena, the Adirondack Thunder visited for a game rescheduled from December 11. This was the first of four straight games at home for the Royals against ADK, the other three are on consecutive dates later in the month. The game was scoreless until the latter part of the second period, the Thunder struck first before Acadia University product Garrett McFadden (on loan from the Phantoms) knotted it 1-1 at the second intermission. ADK went ahead early in the third, Thomas Ebbing scored the tying goal and just over two minutes later Mike Chen lit the lamp to put the Royals up 3-2. Chen is a great story: he's been with the club all season and more often than not has been the odd-man out. He is a defenseman by trade but on this night he was in the lineup as the tenth forward and his hard work was finally rewarded, he got the hero's welcome at the bench after his go-ahead score (to use a high-school analogy, he's like the guy at the end of the bench who rarely plays but he's the hardest worker in practice and the most popular guy on the team). Unfortunately the good times did not last, the Thunder tied the game later in the period and ultimately prevailed in the OT shootout 4-3. Logan Flodell was goalie of record as the club drops to 15-4-4 at home and 30-12-8 overall. The Royals have a three-game road trip upcoming, the next home date is the first of that aforementioned three-in-three with ADK on March 18. There was talk of a storm system passing through the area on Saturday, it arrived in the early morning hours. When I arose for the day it was WHITE outside, I called Jenny and told her we'd do lunch on Sunday instead. The system was gone by early afternoon, I cleaned the car and drove it out on the highway to warm it up. In the evening hours it was frigid and windy, I was just as glad to be in the house. The semi-annual clock change took effect on this night, on Sunday it was clear and sunny as Jenny and I had our makeup lunch date. Take care, thanks for reading.
