Saturday night at the Arena for the home opener and the twenty-fourth season of Royals hockey. The Trois-Rivieres Lions were the opponent fresh from wining the league championship in the spring of '25. Over 5000 were in the house on this night to see a tough and intense battle that saw the Royals come out on the short end 2-1. Brandon Saigeon scored the lone goal, Keith Petruzzelli was goaltender of record. Sunday was intended to be Playoff Day in Rothsville but the weatherman said no, morning rain ruined the plan and forced postponement until the 16th. That bought me an extra hour or two before leaving for the Arena and the afternoon rematch with Trois-Rivieres. Yaniv Perets started in goal for the Royals and allowed two goals in the first five minutes, head coach Anthony Peters replaced him with Vinnie Purpura and the Lions never scored again. Carson Golder lit the lamp on a power play late in the first to draw the Royals to within one, in the second period Golder struck again on the man-advantage to tie it 2-2. Seven minutes of sudden-death overtime failed to yield a winner, in the shootout Nolan Burke scored the only goal giving the Royals a tough 3-2 win and and an overall mark record of 6-2-1. It's often been said that a hockey rivalry is intensified when the teams have a playoff history, that certainly has become the case with these two teams. The Royals play at home on the 15th versus Adirondack and the 16th versus Wheeling, the Nailers stay in town for a school-kids game on the 18th . Take care, thanks for reading.
