Wednesday night hockey at the Arena with the Royals and the Newfoundland Growlers in the concluding game of the three-game series. Ever since they joined the ECHL in 2018 the Growlers have been one of the league's more affluent franchises with a solid NHL affiliation, the current club is not as strong as previous editions but they are still a very tough out. On this night Joseph Nardi gave the Royals a 1-0 lead in the first period, Newfoundland scored four times unanswered in the middle frame to carry a three-goal advantage into the third. An early score by Yvan Mongo and a late goal from Ryan Cox pulled the Royals to within one, a Growler empty-netter with five seconds left put the lid on a 5-3 Royals loss. Nolan Maier took the decision as the Royals home record drops to 11-12-3 but taking two of three against a difficult opponent is still a good thing. The rest of the week had little going outside of Saturday lunch with Jenny and two road games for the Royals, the club lost on Friday but rebounded with a Saturday win to bring the overall mark to 20-24-7. The February portion of the schedule finishes with a home game with Wheeling on Wednesday the 28th. Take care, thanks for reading.
