Follow along with the Royals’ season every Friday (Royals Weekly) on MarkhamRoyals.com as we look back at the games that were and look ahead to the upcoming action!
The Markham Royals have two opportunities to wrap up the calendar year of 2024 on a high note this weekend, with home games against the Haliburton County Huskies and Cobourg Cougars.
Friday’s game against Haliburton will be the Royals’ second and final time hosting the team this season. The Huskies previously came to town on November 3rd, in a game that Markham narrowly lost 4-3. Haliburton also won the first game of the season series in Minden by a 6-3 margin. Key to this game will be keeping Huskies forward Deandres De Jesus off the scoreboard, as he had hat tricks in both affairs.
Sunday’s game against Cobourg will be an opportunity for the Royals to get revenge for a 4-2 loss against the Cougars on Monday. Markham played valiantly in an effort to close an early 2-0 deficit, but were unable to complete their comeback push.
Markham looks for a pair of wins after going 1-2 the previous week. Along with the Cobourg game, the Royals split their previous weekend, falling 5-4 to the Toronto Jr. Canadiens last Friday before responding with a 7-4 win over the Aurora Tigers on Saturday.
Saturday’s game featured a five-point explosion for 2004-born Rodion Tatarenko, who was named to the “OJ 20’s” challenge this week. It also featured the first OJHL goal for rookie forward Mason Cruzet.
