The weather around here has been very unseasonable lately, on Monday a mid-April heatwave rolled in. On Wednesday the Royals returned home for what would be a very unusual evening at the Arena. The club finished the road portion of its schedule with two games over the weekend, the final mark in enemy buildings was 19-13-4. On this night at the Arena the outside temperatures affected the quality of the ice, during the first period there were noticeable areas with surface moisture. The first intermission was extended by ten minutes while the respective coaches, officials and Arena management discussed a course of action. The Zambonis did a dry scrape in an effort to smooth out the surface and remove the standing moisture, the procedure was repeated during the second intermission which was extended by an extra two minutes to be on the safe side (all told we had forty-eight minutes of intermission instead of the standard thirty-six). The game started at 7:00 and wound down at 9:30, not bad considering all that the rink crew had to work through. In the game itself the Royals lost to the Norfolk Admirals 7-4, the Ads broke a 4-4 tie in the third period and added two empty-netters in the final moments. Evan Barratt scored twice for the Royals, Charlie Gerard and Max Newton added single goals, Pat Nagle was goaltender of record. The Arena mark drops to 20-12-2, 39-25-6 overall. The club wraps up the season on Friday and Saturday with the Newfoundland Growlers coming to town, the heat is expected to stick around as well which could make for an interesting weekend. Take care, thanks for reading.
