Photo Credit: Samantha Wismer
Monday matinees are typically for off Broadway plays. However, with the exception of President’s Day, the Royals hosted the Newfoundland Growlers. The Royals lost two points and fell to the Growlers 4-2.
The first period was a bit back and forth at first, but the scoring was opened by Issac Johnson early in the first. It was also followed by two Growlers penalties that the Royals were 0/2 on. Simon Kubicek took a penalty for slashing, as did Adam Samuelsson. Not long after was Alec Butcher’s golden 11th goal of the season. It was assisted by Captain McFadden and Mike Chen. The Growlers closed out the period with a third goal by Adam Dawe.
The second period was started by an NHL style goal by Charlie Gerard, a recent Lehigh Valley Phantoms loan to knot the score at two. Later, Mike Hoffmann and Simon Kubicek both got dinged for roughing. The 4-on-4 was aggressive but did not produce what the Royals needed. The second period was carried through with effort and physicality, however.
Chris Martenet used his size difference/advantage to his best ability throughout the course of the game, but mainly in the third period. He was shielding pucks, and body blocking left and right. It was on the Gerard boarding penalty that gave the Growlers a Power Play goal, which ended the period 4-2 in favor of the Growlers.
It seemed the third period came and went on this spring-like afternoon, but not without effort and tenacity from the Royals. When asked about the effort, coach James Henry said, “The last two periods were great. It’s making the conscious effort to do that for
three periods. Especially a team like Newfoundland. You take a period off and they’re going to capitalize on it.”
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He ended the question with stating not being competitive enough is what cost them the game. From this vantage point, the hungrier team won on this matinee. The Royals did split this weekend series, per se, and managed to get two points out of it. The team will now gear up for a
trip to Glens Falls, New York, where they will have a back-to-back series against the
Adirondack Thunder.
