Back at the Arena on Saturday night, the Maine Mariners returned for game #2 of the weekend series. This was Wall of Honor Night, the Royals organization celebrated its twentieth season (of actual on-ice competition) with the unveiling of an all-time team selected by fan vote. The group included coaches Larry Courville and Kirk MacDonald, forwards Yannick Tifu, Olivier Labelle and Ryan Cruthers, defensemen Adam Comrie and Nick Luukko plus goaltender Riley Gill. The game began much as Friday's had started, goals by Thomas Ebbing and Brad Morrison gave the Royals a 2-0 lead after one period. In the second Ebbing struck again to make it 3-0, after the Mariners got on the board Patrick Bajkov extended the lead to 4-1. Two goals for the visitors made it 4-3 at the second intermission, in the third period the game ended similarly to Friday when Patrick McNally hit the empty net with thirty seconds left to put the game away at 5-3.On Sunday afternoon the series finished and a different kind of game was in store. It was each team's third game in three days, with a 3:00 start figured in both teams were running on fumes. There was no score until late in the second period, the Mariners finally broke through and carried a 1-0 lead into the third period. Trevor Gooch took advantage of a giveaway in the offensive zone to tie the score with eleven minutes left, in the final minute the Royals were awarded a power play opportunity but could not convert before regulation time expired. The man-advantage carried over into overtime which ended eighteen seconds after it started, Patrick Bajkov got a break into the zone and fired home the OTGWG for the 2-1 win. As the Royals celebrated the penalized Maine player left the penalty box and skated directly towards the referee, his teammates got him out of there before anything escalated any further. Logan Flodell earned both victories in net as the Royals complete the weekend sweep, the mark stands at 43-16-9 overall and 23-8-4 at home. The club plays in Portland on the 13th and in Glens Falls on the 15th, the regular season wraps up at home on Saturday the 16th. Take care, thanks for reading.
