Friday night at the Arena for Game #4 with Wheeling, the Royals facing a 3-0 series deficit. The season would ultimately end on Saturday but not before the Royals staved off elimination with a scintillating overtime win in game #4. The visitors from West Virginia took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period, Connor Kurth drew the Royals even before the intermission. Early in the second period the Nailers took the lead back and held it into the dying moments of regulation time. With twenty-six seconds left and the goaltender on the bench for the extra attacker Carson Golder struck the motherlode to tie the game 2-2. Nine minutes deep into overtime Kurth stole a pass in the neutral zone and scored on the breakaway to win it 3-2. On Saturday in game #5 the teams played through sixty minutes of regulation play and twenty more of overtime with no score, eight minutes into the second overtime period the Nailers got a break in the offensive zone and ended the game 1-0 and the series four games to one. Yaniv Perets was in goal both nights and deserved an award for his performance. Wheeling moves on to meet either Maine or Adirondack in the division finals, for the Royals it's the end until training camp in early October. On Sunday we were in Rothsville after a week's absence, on this day Ephrata beat Township in OT shootout and Hillside defeated Warwick. Seven new players joined the ranks bringing the total up to fifty overall, after another week off for Mother's Day we'll be back on May 17. Take care, thanks for reading.
