The rainy weather from Friday was still around on Saturday, at the Arena the Royals hosted Game #1 of the Division Finals. This series on paper is about as equal as it gets, two evenly matched teams who played a very competitive regular-season series with both clubs showing the ability to win in the other's building. If there was any advantage coming in it probably belonged to the Royals, they had four days off with no travel while the Newfoundland Growlers had only three days between series plus the travel from St. John's to Reading (it's often been joked that when you visit St, John's you're halfway to London, England). On this night the Royals came out on fire scoring four goals in the first period and winning decisively 7-3. Trevor Gooch led the way with a hattrick, Frank DiChiara scored twice with Kevin Conley and Dominic Cormier adding single tallies. The rain was still coming on the drive home and when I went to bed, had you told me then we would be playing street hockey on Sunday morning in Rothsville I may not have believed it. Sunday morning dawned with the rain gone and clear skies, I took a broom with me to sweep out some puddles on the rink surface. Some of the guys brought wider brooms and leaf blowers to spread out the leftover water and dry it, we started a few minutes late but the games were played. Six new players joined up bringing the League total to forty-two, Hillside beat Ephrata and Township beat Warwick as we reach the one-third point of the schedule. I was home by 1:30, after a quick shower and an equally quick lunch I picked up Jenny and her mother for the return trip to the Arena for game #2. On this night we saw a virtual reverse of Saturday as the Growlers scored the first three goals and carried a 3-0 lead into the third period. Kevin Conley got the Royals on the board but that would be it for the Good Guys, an empty-netter in the last minute put away a 4-1 Newfoundland win. Pat Nagle was in goal both games for the Royals as the series shifts to St. John's for the next three games. From here forward all things are equal, both teams face the same game schedule and travel concerns with no real advantage to either side. It is essentially a three-of-five series at this point, the next game at the Arena would be on Saturday the 14th if needed. Take care, thanks for reading.
