November 29-30

A rare Thursday hockey game at the Arena which came about thanks to another event. After the league schedule was released in May the Arena had an opportunity to book a concert for December 1, as a result the game for that date was pushed back to the day before. On this night the Kalamazoo Wings visited from southwestern Michigan for the first time since November 2018. The Wings are in the league's Western Conference and are infrequent visitors but they and the Royals have a playoff history, the clubs met in the postseason in 2010 and 2011. The Royals' early-season struggles continued on this night in the form of another frustrating one-goal defeat. New addition Tag Bertuzzi (son of former NHLer Todd Bertuzzi) gave the Royals a 1-0 lead midway through the first period, after the K-Wings tied it Brendan Hoffmann scored the 5000th goal in Royals franchise history to make it 2-1 at the intermission. The Wings went ahead 3-2 in the second, late in the period Bertuzzi struck again to knot the game at 3-3. Kalamazoo took the lead back in the second minute of the third period and made it stand up for the 4-3-win, new goaltender Parker Gahagen (on assignment from the Phantoms) made his Royals debut and suffered the loss. The teams get an (originally unscheduled) day off before the rematch on Saturday the 2nd. Take care, thanks for reading.

November 20-28

Another quiet week in the books with the Royals on the road and little else on the calendar, on Wednesday the 22nd we had our usual lunch visit in Quarryville. From there I took Jenny and Helen to the relative's house in Parkesburg for their annual Thanksgiving Day visit. High school winter sports practices began the previous Friday, on the way home from Parkesburg I stopped in at McCaskey. Freddy Ramos is beginning his sixth year as head basketball coach, the rest of the staff is back intact as well. The boys had scrimmages at Susquehanna Township on the 25th and Wilson on the 28th, I rode along on the bus to Berks County on Tuesday just for the hell of it (it's always a strange feeling traveling on 222 between Lancaster and Reading in a vehicle I'm not driving). The JV team scrimmaged at the district's middle school, the varsity was at the high school itself. Right now the organization has twenty-five total players, thirteen on the Varsity roster. Three are returnees from '22-23, six others played on the JV squad, two are brand-new to the program and two others are returning from a season's absence. The season starts with a tipoff tournament at McCaskey on December 1 and 2 (I am absent on the 2nd for the Royals), the 22-game schedule also features the annual holiday tournament at home in the last week of December. At the Junior Varsity level most teams usually play only sixteen or seventeen games since the varsity plays tournaments and showcase events where the JV is not involved, in a rarity the JPM JV has a full 22-game schedule of its own. It's very unusual and somewhat ambitious but it's not a bad thing, the more games a JV player can play gives him all the more opportunity to develop and that's the whole purpose behind it. Take care, thanks for reading.

November 18-19

November 18 is an anniversary of sorts, this blog debuted on this site on that date in 2010. The blog had started elsewhere the previous January, I moved it here when the former hosting site became incompatible. That blog no longer exists online but I preserved it in print in case I ever decide to write a book (not that anybody would actually read it but you never know). Back at the Arena on Saturday night for the return match with Newfoundland, this game transpired in a fashion which is becoming very familiar. The Royals led 2-0 in the first fifteen minutes on scores by Alec Butcher and Matt Brown before the visiting Growlers got the board, in the second period the Royals were outscored 4-1 with Yvan Mongo accounting for the lone goal for the home team, at the horn it was 5-3 Newfoundland. Late in the third Shane Sellar lit the lamp to pull he Royals within one but a Growlers empty-netter in the final minute sealed the deal at 6-4, Will Cranley took the loss but deserved a better fate. The club drops to 3-7-2 overall and 3-2-1 on home ice, the next home date is on Thursday the 30th. Sunday morning was the Grand Finale for the season in Rothsville, Warwick defeated Hillside for the "bronze medal". In the championship game Township trailed Ephrata 3-0 in the second and 4-1 entering the third, they scored five times in the last period to win 6-5 with the winning goal coming with eighteen second left. It's interesting to note that we've played six seasons at Lions Park, through the first four each team won a championship with Township being the last to do so in the autumn of '22. This win was their third consecutive as they successfully defended in the spring of '23 and again in the now-completed fall season. A total of fifty-two players participated including nine who had not played previously. We've often admitted that the league is perhaps not the most prestigious one around but it exists for a specific purpose and that purpose is served. If all goes well we'll be back in April of '24. Take care, thanks for reading. 

November 13-17

A typically stagnant mid-November week led into what was to be a busy weekend, on Friday the Royals continued their four-game homestand with a visit from the Newfoundland Growlers. The Growlers have been the bane of the Royals' postseason appearances in each of the last two seasons, both teams have a lot of new faces this time around but the history is still there. Those in attendance at the Arena on this night may have been forgiven for thinking they were watching a television rerun, as the well-known baseball player Yogi Berra might have said "it's deja vu all over again". Will Zmolek gave the Royals a 1-0 lead five minutes into the game, that held until the Growlers tied it in the first minute of the second period. A late-period score by Yvan Mongo and a third-period marker from Joseph Nardi gave the Royals a 3-1 advantage but the visitors from The Rock weren't going away easily. Newfoundland cashed in on a power play with five minutes left to draw within one and scored an extra-attacker goal with fifteen seconds on the clock to send it into overtime at 3-3. The extra session lasted all of thirty-one seconds before Darren Brady got a break into the offensive zone and blasted home the game-winner. Nolan Maier (back from the Phantoms) was the winner in net as the Royals earn their third home-ice win, two of them coming in OT with the other decided in the last minute of regulation. The homestand finishes with the clubs lacing them up for the rematch on Saturday the 18th. Take care, thanks for reading. 

November 10-12

When the fall sports season ended at McCaskey I thought I was done with football for the year but as the old expression goes: Not So Fast. Earlier in the week I had a call from our old friends at Lancaster Catholic, they were hosting a district playoff game on the 10th and in need of my services. LCHS has a new athletic director who is a former assistant football coach at McCaskey, he told me my contact info was on file and he was accustomed to hearing me on the mic. High school athletics in Pennsylvania are divided by enrollment into six classes ("6A" for the largest schools down to "1A" for the smallest), LCHS is in the "3A" bracket. This was a rematch of a 2022 district semifinal, the Crusaders hosted West Perry (from Perry County, about seventy miles northwest of Lancaster). LCHS was seeking revenge for a defeat the previous year but WP had other ideas, they scored early and often on the way to a 49-20 win. I was around LCHS on a somewhat regular basis from 1996 to 2017, not so much anymore but I'm always open to filling in when needed. Saturday night was hockey night on Penn Street, the Royals hosted Norfolk in the back end of the two-game set. The club's early-season struggles continued on this night with a 2-1 loss in regulation, Yvan Mongo scored the lone goal with Will Cranley taking the tough-luck loss. The Royals stand at 2-6-2 overall which is obviously not what anyone would like but the season is still young, it's often said that how you finish matters more than how you start. Case in point: a few years back a team in our league started 16-2-1, they went 18-32-3 the rest of the way and missed the playoffs entirely. The homestand continues with the Newfoundland Growlers visiting on the 17th and 18th. Sunday morning was clear and chilly for the last week of the regular season at Lions Park in Rothsville, a planned nine-week schedule was chopped down to seven thanks to the weather. These were makeup games having the most bearing on the standings, Warwick defeated Hillside and Ephrata beat Township. As it shakes out we will have the same matchups on the 19th, Warwick-Hillside in the Third-Place Game and Ephrata-Township for the championship. Take care, thanks for reading.

November 6-9

Wednesday night at the Arena, the Royals returned home from an 0-3 road trip for the opener of a two-game set with the Norfolk Admirals. Injuries at the higher levels within the Flyers organization have affected the Royals roster, the absence of several defensemen and two goalies between Philadelphia and Allentown forced the Royals to dip into the Southern Professional Hockey League for reinforcements. The most notable addition came courtesy of the NHL St. Louis Blues, with Nolan Maier on recall to the Phantoms the Royals added goaltender Will Cranley on loan from the Blues' AHL affiliate in Springfield. On this night Cranley made his home debut as a Royal and picked up the win but it wasn't easy, this game was scarily reminiscent of the game against Trois-Rivieres on October 29. Darren Brady gave the Royals an early 1-0 lead but the Admirals replied just eleven seconds later, Matt Brown's score late in the first period put the Good Guys up 2-1 at the intermission. In the middle frame each team scored twice with Ryan Chyzowski and Koletrane Wilson lighting the lamp for the Royals, entering the third it was 4-3. Midway through the third Adam Brubacher cashed in on a 5-on-3 power play to give the Royals a two-goal edge but Norfolk didn't go quietly, two goals in the final three minutes of regulation drew the Ads even at 5-5. The overtime period lasted less than two minutes, Chyzowski stole the puck in the defensive zone and scored his second of the night on a breakaway to nail down Sweet Victory for the Royals 6-5. The win improves the overall mark to 2-5-2 and 2-0-1 at home, game #2 with the Admirals is at the Arena on Saturday the 11th. Take care, thanks for reading. 

November 2-5

The first few days of November were as quiet as the last few of October had been, on Saturday we had the semi-annual clock adjustment where the hour of sleep we lost in March was returned. It always messes up my body clock and it takes about a week for me to adjust especially with sunset coming better than an hour earlier. Sunday was a very comfortable day with brilliant sunshine, it was also a street hockey day at Lions Park in Rothsville. What was originally scheduled to be the ninth and final week of the regular season was actually the sixth thanks to three weeks of rainouts, on this day Hillside defeated Township and Ephrata won over Warwick. So far (and strictly by pure happenstance) each team has played the others twice, all of the weeks rained out were a different set of games. Four of the six potential playoff tiebreakers have been determined, since the October 29 postponements have the most bearing on the final standings they have been rescheduled as makeups for the 12th with the consolation and championship games on the 19th. Take care, thanks for reading.

October 28-November 1

Saturday night in downtown Reading for the official beginning of the 23rd year of Royals hockey. In October of '22 the club started on the road and went 0-2-1, this time around the schedule and the record after three games was exactly the same. The Trois-Rivieres Lions were the opponent for Opening Weekend at the Arena, the Saturday night result was eerily similar to the exhibition game on the 12th. The Royals held leads of 2-0 and 3-2 and were caught both times, the visitors from North Of The 49th prevailed in the OT shootout 4-3. Yvan Mongo, Joseph Nardi and Ryan Chyzowski (son of 1990s NHLer Dave Chyzowski) scored for the Royals, Nolan Maier took the decision in net. Sunday was supposed to be much busier than it turned out to be, a persistent morning rain ruined street hockey in Rothsville. At 3:00 at the Arena the Lions and Royals reconvened for the back end of the weekend set, the theme for the day was Halloween. They say strange things happen on Halloween and this day was all of that plus a little bit more. It was 1-1 after the first period with Ryan Chyzowski lighting the lamp for the Royals, in the second stanza Tyson Fawcett and Adam Brubacher gave the Home Team a 3-2 lead entering the third. In the final period the teams combined for eight goals with Austin Master, Solag Bakich and Joseph Nardi combining to give the Royals a late 6-5 lead. Trois-Rivieres cashed in on a powerplay to tie the game but the last shot belonged to the Royals, Devon Paliani's score with fifty-five seconds left in regulation made it 7-6. The Lions went with the extra attacker but could not get the equalizer, Jacob Kucharski earned the victory in his Royals debut. The club finishes its first weekend at home with a mark of 1-0-1 (overall 1-2-2), another three-game road trip is on the schedule before the Norfolk Admirals visit on November 8. Take care, thanks for reading.