Railers Preview: at Reading, October 13 & 14, 2018

Worcester Railers at Reading Royals
Santander Arena, Reading, PA
Saturday, October 13th at 7pm
Sunday, October 14th at 5pm
Radio coverage at 98.9 Nash Icon

The Worcester Railers hit the road for their 2018-2019 regular season opener as they play a pair against the Reading Royals in Pennsylvania this weekend. The season has been dubbed “Railers 2.0” by the team, but for the most part fans will see a lot of the same things on the ice as last season.

Head Coach Jamie Russell’s mindset is still the same as last season’s inaugural campaign: compete hard every shift and make the opponent work hard for everything. While that sounds very basic outworking their opponents was one of the big reasons the Railers made the playoffs last season.

On the defensive side of things much should remain pretty much the same as last season, with goaltender Mitch Gillam hoping to continue his stellar play in net. Mike Cornell returns to the Worcester blueline, this time with the captain’s “C” on his jersey. Evan Buitenhuis, Worcester’s new back-up goaltender, comes in with an impressive college resume and looked sharp in preseason action against Maine.

Newcomers Alexis Vanier, Tyler Mueller, and David Quenneville should be solid additions to an already excellent defensive corps, which sees Kyle McKenzie, Connor Doherty, Ryan MacKinnon, and Tommy Panico returning.

What should change is the Railers offense, which last season saw them at the very bottom of the ECHL in goals scored. Russell traded away winger Nick Saracino in exchange for Nick Sorkin, the Wheeling Nailers leading scorer last season. He then went out and signed Toledo Walleye points leader Tyler Barnes.

Woody Hudson and his 19 goals from last season returns to the line-up, and Railers fans can expect to see lots of Matthew Gaudreau and Jeff Kubiak as the Sound Tigers have many extra forwards under contract. Dylan Willick also returns, and his 2-2-4 in six games last season has fans hoping he can keep those numbers growing in a full season.

Josh Holmstrom, who played a handful of games with Worcester last season, and newcomer Austin Block also have the potential to put up big numbers for the Railers.

Last season fans were happy to have hockey back in Worcester, and were mostly satisfied with making the playoffs. This season expectations are much higher both from the team and from fans and just making the playoffs isn’t enough for anyone.

The road to the ECHL handing out the Kelly Cup is a long one, and for Worcester it begins Saturday in Reading.

(Last year’s stats)

Head to Head Record 2017-18 Regular Season Worcester 7-6-1-0 Reading 7-5-2-0 Head to Head Record 2016-17 Regular Season Worcester 0-0-0-0 Reading 0-0-0-0 Last 5 Years record between teams Worcester 7-6-1-0 Reading 7-5-2-0 Worcester vs. Reading Last 5 Years record at Worcester Worcester 4-1-1-0 Reading 2-3-1-0 Worcester vs. Reading Last 5 Years record at Reading Worcester 3-5-0-0 Reading 5-2-1-0 Previous Meetings Last Season Worcester 2 @ Reading 1 (Apr 4 2018) Final OT Worcester 0 @ Reading 3 (Mar 24 2018) Final Worcester 4 @ Reading 1 (Mar 23 2018) Final Worcester 3 @ Reading 6 (Feb 22 2018) Final Reading 2 @ Worcester 3 (Feb 7 2018) Final OT Worcester 2 @ Reading 4 (Jan 10 2018) Final Worcester 0 @ Reading 3 (Jan 7 2018) Final Worcester 3 @ Reading 2 (Jan 6 2018) Final Reading 2 @ Worcester 1 (Jan 3 2018) Final OT Worcester 2 @ Reading 6 (Dec 28 2017) Final Reading 0 @ Worcester 1 (Dec 20 2017) Final Reading 3 @ Worcester 1 (Nov 5 2017) Final Reading 1 @ Worcester 2 (Nov 4 2017) Final Reading 2 @ Worcester 4 (Nov 3 2017) Final How the 2 teams match up Reading Worcester Team Record 39-24-9-0 — 87 points 37-27-4-4 — 82 points Division Ranking 3rd North 4th North Conference Ranking 5th Eastern 6th Eastern League Ranking 9th 10th Past 10 Games 6-3-1-0 7-2-0-1 Streak 2-0-1-0 0-1-0-0 Last Game 5-2 W vs Norfolk (Apr 7 2018) Final 2-0 L vs Manchester (Apr 8 2018) Final Home Record 24-10-2-0 21-13-2-0 Away Record 15-14-7-0 16-14-2-4 GF 232 194 GA 199 193 PP (Overall) (41/257) 16.0% (34/244) 13.9% PP (Home) (23/119) 19.3% (20/129) 15.5% PP (Away) (18/138) 13.0% (14/115) 12.2% PK (Overall) (34/218) 84.4% (38/240) 84.2% PK (Home) (18/103) 82.5% (21/127) 83.5% PK (Away) (16/115) 86.1% (17/113) 85.0% PP vs. Opp. (5/40) 12.5% (3/33) 9.1% PK vs. Opp. (3/33) 90.9% (5/40) 87.5% Leading Rookie Huntebrinker (20-21-41) Hudson (19-10-29) Most PIM Comrie – 59 Turcotte – 188 Team PIM/GM 9.1/Game 13.3/Game Leading Scorers Willows (32-42-74) Almeida (22-39-61) McCarthy (22-37-59) Langkow (18-27-45) Wilkins (20-27-47) Saracino (12-25-37) Zajac (16-29-45) Hudson (19-10-29) Schmidt (17-27-44) Kubiak (14-14-28) Last 5 Games 5-2 W vs Norfolk (Apr 7 2018) Final 2-0 L vs Manchester (Apr 8 2018) Final 6-2 W @ Norfolk (Apr 6 2018) Final 3-2 W @ Manchester (Apr 7 2018) Final 2-1 L vs Worcester (Apr 4 2018) Final OT 2-1 W @ Reading (Apr 4 2018) Final OT 6-2 L @ Adirondack (Mar 31 2018) Final 4-1 W @ Adirondack (Apr 1 2018) Final 5-4 W vs Manchester (Mar 30 2018) Final SO 4-1 W vs Brampton (Mar 31 2018) Final Leading After 1st 26-4-2-0 16-1-1-1 Leading After 2nd 28-1-3-0 21-0-2-0 Tied After 1st 8-8-7-0 14-10-2-2 Tied After 2nd 8-4-2-0 12-7-0-3 Trailing After 1st 5-12-0-0 7-16-1-1 Trailing After 2nd 3-19-4-0 4-20-2-1 Out Shooting Opponents 18-9-5-0 22-10-2-2 Out Shot by Opponents 19-15-4-0 14-14-2-1 1-Goal Games 15-7-9-0 18-5-4-4 2-Goal Games 6-4-0-0 6-8-0-0 3-Goal Games 6-7-0-0 10-12-0-0 Worcester Railers # Player GP G A PTS PIM +/- 19 Barry Almeida 13 6 6 12 8 3 8 Matthew Gaudreau 7 3 3 6 2 6 18 Nick Saracino 13 1 5 6 4 -2 10 Matt Lane 13 2 3 5 4 0 21 Chris Langkow 7 2 3 5 9 -3 4 X Patrick McNally 5 1 4 5 2 3 23 Woody Hudson 14 4 0 4 6 -2 17 Frank Dichiara 13 2 2 4 7 3 9 Kellen Jones 9 2 2 4 2 -7 16 Jeff Kubiak 10 1 3 4 4 -3 3 Ben Masella 14 0 4 4 6 -5 14 T.J. Syner 11 0 3 3 0 1 20 Yanick Turcotte 10 0 2 2 14 -3 41 X Brock Beukeboom 4 1 0 1 0 -1 6 Mike Cornell 8 1 0 1 36 1 22 Justin Hamonic 14 1 0 1 2 1 11 Josh Holmstrom 3 1 0 1 0 0 28 Connor Doherty 9 0 1 1 0 -3 5 Kyle McKenzie 14 0 1 1 4 -3 12 X Wade Murphy 2 0 1 1 2 -1 13 Jake Randolph 3 0 1 1 0 -1 88 X Ashton Rome 9 0 1 1 4 -7 42 Dylan Willick 1 0 1 1 0 1 44 X Patrick Cullity 4 0 0 0 2 0 24 X Sean Gammage 2 0 0 0 2 -4 35 Mitch Gillam 8 0 0 0 0 0 44 Tommy Kelley (total) 2 0 0 0 2 -4 CIN 1 0 0 0 0 -2 WOR 1 0 0 0 2 -2 39 Eamon McAdam 7 0 0 0 0 0 24 Josh McArdle 2 0 0 0 0 -2 42 X Vinny Muto 6 0 0 0 2 -4 2 Tommy Panico 1 0 0 0 0 -1 37 X Chris Saracino 2 0 0 0 0 0 # Player GP W L OTL SL MIN GA GAA SV% 35 Mitch Gillam 8 4 3 0 0 440:58 16 2.18 0.923 39 Eamon McAdam 7 3 3 1 0 401:44 18 2.69 0.918 Reading Royals # Player GP G A PTS PIM +/- 3 Chris McCarthy 14 7 5 12 6 0 90 Matt Willows 14 5 7 12 7 0 9 Ryan Penny 11 4 3 7 8 3 8 Nolan Zajac 14 3 3 6 4 2 27 X Mark Naclerio 8 2 4 6 2 4 12 Steven Swavely 6 3 2 5 0 1 25 Nick Luukko 14 1 4 5 0 2 14 Adam Schmidt 8 1 4 5 2 2 16 Matt Wilkins 10 0 5 5 6 -1 17 Michael Huntebrinker 13 2 2 4 0 -3 19 Alex Krushelnyski 5 2 2 4 0 5 5 X James de Haas 5 2 1 3 2 3 20 Brian Morgan 10 2 1 3 4 2 28 Mark Bennett 4 1 2 3 2 5 43 Frank Hora 13 0 3 3 12 4 15 Tyler Brown 8 0 2 2 0 -1 6 Matias Cleland 9 0 2 2 2 1 2 Chase Golightly 13 0 2 2 2 6 23 X Jimmy DeVito 3 1 0 1 0 3 23 Jack Riley 2 0 1 1 4 1 24 Scott Tanski 9 0 1 1 2 -2 21 Derek Whitmore 8 0 1 1 0 -2 49 X Jack Ceglarski 4 0 0 0 0 -1 11 X Adam Comrie 1 0 0 0 0 -3 31 Mark Dekanich 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 Branden Komm (total) 5 0 0 0 0 0 REA 3 0 0 0 0 0 MAN 2 0 0 0 0 0 7 X Loic Leduc 3 0 0 0 11 -2 44 Viktor Liljegren 3 0 0 0 2 0 1 John Muse 6 0 0 0 0 0 18 X Nick Neville 7 0 0 0 0 2 28 X Saverio Posa 3 0 0 0 0 -2 23 X Matt Salhany 1 0 0 0 0 1 11 Charlie Vasaturo 1 0 0 0 0 0 # Player GP W L OTL SL MIN GA GAA SV% 1 John Muse 6 4 1 1 0 364:28 10 1.65 0.942 31 Mark Dekanich 5 2 3 0 0 295:07 9 1.83 0.935 29 Branden Komm (total) 5 3 1 1 0 299:14 13 2.61 0.921 MAN 2 2 0 0 0 119:52 5 2.50 0.923 REA 3 1 1 1 0 179:22 8 2.68 0.920

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