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.
