1996 at Philadelphia 6-4 loss
The Worcester IceCats took on the Phantoms for the second time in three nights, and the outcome was the same as the ‘Cats were swept by Philly after suffering a 6-4 loss. Stephane Roy had the only goal of the first period, a power play tally at 2:06 assisted by David Williams and Alex Vasilevskii. In the second the Phantoms tied it at 2:19 on a goal by Colin Forbes, and less than a minute later took the lead on a strike by Peter White at 3:08. Jason Zent tied it for Worcester at 7:39, with Williams helping, but at 10:53 Steven King gave Philly the lead again. Former ‘Cats forward Craig Darby made it 4-2 with a power play goal at 14:28 that looks like an all-Worcester strike as Darren Rumble and Aris Brimanis assisted. Roy got the ‘Cats within one at 14:48, with Jamie Rivers and Nick Naumenko picking up points. In the third Zent tied it again for the IceCats, with Bob Lachance and Konstantin Shafranov assisting at 8:18. But Philly grabbed the next two, with White scoring at 12:33 and Vinny Prospal lighting the lamp at 16:01 for the 6-4 final. Dominic Roussel made 44 saves in the game for the Phantoms, while Travis Scott had 25 for the IceCats.
1997 at Springfield 5-2 win
The Worcester IceCats got goals from five different players to defeat the Falcons 5-2. Justin Hocking had the only goal in the opening twenty minutes when he lit the lamp with a 40-foot wrist shot at 3:08. Michal Handzus had the lone assist on the play. In the second period Jason Morgan tied the game with a shorthanded marker at 7:42, but Jason Zent matched it with a shortie for the ‘Cats at 10:55 when he poked home a rebound of Jamal Mayers’ shot. Libor Zabransky had the other helper on the play. Robert Petrovicky made it 3-1 on the power play at 17:00 when he tipped home Rory Fitzpatrick’s shot. Bob Lachance also had a point on the goal. Chad Kilger made it 3-2 at 15:25 of the third, but Chris Kenady got the goal back for Worcester at 18:34 with a five on three goal assisted by Stephane Roy. Nick Naumenko then added a 180-foot empty net goal, assisted by Handzus, for the 5-2 final. Fred Cassivi made 33 saves and was named the game’s #1 star.
1998 vs St. John’s 3-2 loss
The Worcester IceCats scored first, but the Maple Leafs scored more often in a 3-2 ‘Cats loss to St. John’s. Rory Fitzpatrick got the IceCats on the board at 14:02 with a power play goal assisted by Dan Corso and Jochen Hecht. Jason Podollan tied the game for the maple Leafs at 18:58, and in the second period Mark Deyell have St. John’s the lead at 14:14. In the third stanza Ryan Pepperall made it 3-1 with a goal at 3:06. At 11:19 Corso made it a one goal game on the power play, with Fitzpatrick and Shayne Toporowski getting assists, but that was as close as Worcester would get. Brent Johnson had 21 saves in the loss.
2000 vs Saint John 2-0 win
The Worcester IceCats got 34 saves from Cody Rudkowsky in a 2-0 blanking of the Flames. Both of the ‘Cats goals came in the second period, and were on the power play. Jaroslav Obsut grabbed the first one, with Dan Corso and Pascal Rheaume getting assists. Corso scored the second, with Rheaume and Marc Brown helping. Corso’s goal was on a major power play the ‘Cats received when Saint John winger David Roche was given a fighting major and game misconduct for attacking Rheaume from behind.
2002 vs Portland 3-1 win
(ICECATS) The Worcester IceCats earned their third consecutive win Friday night as they defeated the Portland Pirates 3-1 at Worcester’s Centrum Centre. With an assist in the game, ‘Cats forward Justin Papineau extended his point-scoring streak to nine games. His rare inability to notch a goal halted his goal-scoring streak at five games, one shy of a club record. The Pirates jumped on top first when Mel Angelstad lit the lamp, taking advantage of a delayed penalty. In a goalmouth scramble, the towering winger shot the puck past Worcester goaltender Curtis Sanford at 16:20 of the first. The teams went scoreless for almost an entire period following the Portland goal. However, the ‘Cats seemed to be silently strategizing and stepped up late in the second, capitalizing twice on the power play. With a 5-on-3 advantage, Jame Pollock led the IceCats in scoring three unanswered goals for the victory. Pollock’s goal at 15:24 was set up by Papineau. Just 23 seconds later, while Pollock’s goal was still being announced over the PA system, ‘Cats forward Marc Brown found the back of the Portland net, beating Pirates goaltender Sebastien Charpentier and sending the Centrum Centre crowd into a frenzy. With just over a minute remaining on the third period clock, the Pirates decided to send Charpentier to the bench to allow for an extra skater. Worcester’s Mark Rycroft used the opportunity to seal Portland’s fate as he sent the puck into an empty net with two ticks left on the clock. Curtis Sanford was in goal as Worcester improved their 2002-2003 record to 9-6-1-1 and stopped 30 of 31 shots. The ‘Cats, meanwhile, hit the Portland net 22 times.
2003 at Utah 5-2 win
(UTAH) The Worcester IceCats seem to be enjoying their trip to Utah as for the second time in as many ties they defeated the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies are 1-4 when tied after two periods, as they were Saturday night, 2-2. They have been outscored 24-10 in third periods this season. Worcester is now 7-6-5-0, while Utah falls to 4-10-1-2 and is still looking for the franchise’s 400th win. It has 399 in 10 years. For the first 35 minutes, the Grizzlies were doing reasonably well, though things turned a little sour when David Oliver was robbed of a goal by IceCats netminder Reinhard Divis, who went down and stacked the pads, then threw up his glove to snare an Oliver shot. Utah’s luck really turned early in the third period as the IceCats quickly doubled their goal total. Less than four minutes into the third period, they had two scores. The first came at 3:02 by James Pollock and was a score with which Hay and the Grizzlies could have contended. But 40 seconds later, on the same shift, Utah goalie Mike Smith was upended by a defenseman and an IceCata forward battling in the crease, and Worcester’s Steve Martins took advantage of Smith lying on his back. Utah took its 2-0 lead with a pair of defensemen benefiting from assists from new forward Antti Miettinen. Bubba Berenzweig scored from the slot off a Miettinen drop pass from the left-wing circle, his fourth goal of the season, at 8:44. Diving toward the net, Dan Jancevski took a pass off the backboards from Miettinen for his first goal of the season at 17:59. The IceCats got an empty-net goal with 42 seconds left in the game for the 5-2 final score.
2006 at Hartford 5-4 win
The Worcester Sharks, who playing without two of their three top scorers, managed to scrape together some offense in a 5-4 win over the Wolf Pack. Tom Cavanagh gave the WorSharks the lead with a shorthanded goal when he banged home the rebound of Mike Iggulden’s shot at 9:41. Riley Armstrong scored a power-play goal at 13:38 when tipping in Dan Spang’s low wrist shot into the net. Justin Kurtz had the secondary assist. Mathieu Darche made it 3-0 when he deflected Garrett Stafford’s attempt at 15:02. Lukas Kaspar grabbed a point on the play. Jarkko Immonen then got Hartford on the board with a power play 17:21. Darche made it 4-1 at 14:06 of the second period, with help from Michal Macho and Kaspar. Ryan Callahan grabbed the next two for the Wolf Pack, both on the power play, at 18:17 and 9:12 of the third. Iggulden then scored for the WorSharks at 18:28, assisted by Graham Mink and Cavanagh, to make it 5-3. Callahan then completed his hat trick for an extra attacker power play goal at 19:52 for the 5-4 final. Dimitri Patzold made 43 saves in the win.
2008 at Houston 5-3 win
(WORSHARKS) The Worcester Sharks were tasked with killing off two 5-on-3 power plays on Saturday night. They failed the first time, and scored the second time. Steven Zalewski tallied an unassisted, shorthanded goal to erase a third period deficit and Riley Armstrong followed with the game winner as the Sharks took down the Houston Aeros by a 5-3 score at the Toyota Center in Houston. Disruptive neutral zone play by the Aeros hampered the Sharks offense much of the night, as Worcester fired a subpar 30 shots on Houston netminder Barry Brust. Brust, however, provided the Sharks with one too many rebound chances, including Armstrong’s tap-in at 9:28 of the third period – his second of the night. Armstrong opened the scoring at 7:11 of the first period when his routine snap shot ate up Brust and fluttered over his shoulder into the net. Momentum, however, did not follow suit. Houston capitalized on the first of their two 5-on-3 chances just over a minute later when defenseman Maxim Noreau beat Worcester goaltender Taylor Dakers with a wrist shot from fifty feet. Dakers stopped 22 of 25 shots on the evening. An errant clear from deep in their own zone proved costly early in the middle frame for the Sharks. Jon Insana’s blue line drive was redirected past Dakers by Bryan Lundbohm at 5:09 to give Houston their first lead of the game at 2-1. Worcester pulled even again following a bench minor assessed to the Aeros for too many men. A rebound was again the culprit, this time as a Jason Demers slap shot fell to the stick of Jamie McGinn, who tallied his fifth goal of the year. Aeros defenseman John Scott’s first goal of the year gave the hosts the lead again just 1:30 into the third period, setting up Zalewski’s equalizer and Riley Armstrong’s game winner, which came with just :01 second remaining on a hooking call against Scott. Mike Morris added an empty-net goal to produce the 5-3 final score.
2009 vs Norfolk 3-2 win
(WORSHARKS) Worcester’s John McCarthy scored in the first period while Cory Quirk and Mathieu Curadeau sealed the deal later in the game, each grabbing their first goals of the season in the Sharks 3-2 win over the Norfolk Admirals on Sunday afternoon at the DCU Center. The first period started off slow until John McCarthy (2nd goal) picked up a deflected pass in front of the net and tapped it in to start off the game in Worcester’s favor at 18:08. Worcester led the period in shots with 13 while Norfolk had 5 after twenty minutes of play. The Admirals fired back with 3:49 left in the second period when Matt Syrocyzinski’s shot was mishandled by Alex Stalock, tying the game at 1-1. Stalock made 13 saves while Dustin Tokarski stopped 9 for Norfolk. Cory Quirk scored his first goal of the season when he tipped in a Joe Callahan one-timer bullet through a pack of players in front of the net to put the Sharks up 2-1 at 1:10 in the third period. Minutes later, new addition Mathieu Curadeau scored on a 2-on-1 drive after his centering feed intended for Dennis McCauley bounced off a Norfolk defenseman in front at 4:12, tallying his first point of the season in a Worcester uniform. The Admirals answered back at 16:01 when Blair Jones snuck one past Stalock, bringing the score to 3-2, but it proved to be too little too late. With the win, the Sharks’ record moves to 10-10-0-1 (21 points) on the season. The win at the DCU Center was the first for Worcester since a 2-1 shootout victory vs. the Monarchs on November 6th.
2013 at Manchester 4-1 loss
(WORSHARKS) The Worcester Sharks (5-8-1-0, 11pts) closed out their four game road trip (2-1-1-0) with a 4-1 loss to the Manchester Monarchs (12-3-1-2, 27pts) at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Friday night to kick-off a 3-in-3 weekend for the Sharks. Curt Gogol scored the only goal for Worcester while Harri Sateri allowed four goals on 21 shots in the loss. JF Berube made 22 saves for Manchester and stopped Bracken Kearns on a penalty shot bid late in the second period for his 3rd win of the season. A brisk moving first period saw each team score on their first shot on goal as the two teams were tied 1-1 after 20 minutes. Sean Backman (3rd) received a great pass by Scott Sabourin from the right wing wall in the Sharks zone that sprung Backman all alone in front of the Worcester net. Backman fired a wicked backhander just inside the crossbar past Harri Sateri at 3:54 to put Manchester ahead 1-0. The Sharks would tie the score at 7:22 after a great hit in the right wing corner by Eriah Hayes. Riley Brace sent a tape to tape pass from behind the Monarchs net to Curt Gogol (2nd) who then snapped a quick shot past netminder JF Berube to even the score at 1-1. Manchester outshot Worcester 5-4 in a penalty free opening period of play. Manchester went ahead 2-1 with a flukey goal to open up the second frame at 1:46. Mike Ullrich (1st) scored in his first AHL game as he fired the puck from behind the Worcester net and somehow the puck ended up behind Harri Sateri. Bracken Kearns was denied on a penalty shot bid by the Manchester goaltender’s blocker at 16:46 after he was pulled down from behind on the previous play. Worcester outshot Manchester 12-7 in the 2nd period but trailed 2-1 headed into the second intermission. The Monarchs would score twice more in the third period as Scott Sabourin (3rd) ripped one home at 7:21 and Brandon Kozun (5th) wrapped the game up with a rebound strike at 17:20. Manchester outshot Worcester 9-7 in the third period. The Sharks overall record dips to 5-8-1-0, 11pts and 3-3-1-0, 5pts on the road.
2014 at Hershey 1-0 loss
(WORSHARKS) The Worcester Sharks (8-8-1-0, 17pts) dropped their fifth straight game after a 1-0 loss to the Hershey Bears (9-6-1-1, 20pts) in front of 9,718 fans at the Giant Center on a Saturday evening. Phillip Grubauer made 38 saves for the Bears while Aaron Dell made 19 saves in his first start of the season for the Sharks. Chris Brown scored the only goal of the contest with a first period tally as the Sharks were shutout in their second straight game. Worcester’s four game road trip (0-3-0-0) concludes on Wednesday. Hershey captain Dane Byers (2nd FM) challenged Taylor Doherty (2nd FM) at just 55 seconds into the first period for a quick bout to set the tone early on. Worcester was strong in the first ten minutes, firing 10 shots on goal on goaltender Phillip Grubauer but came up empty. Grubauer stoned Daniil Tarasov point blank on the Sharks first power play of the period to keep the game scoreless. Hershey would strike at 16:38 as Chris Brown (3rd) found the back of the net with a quick one timer shot from the right slot on a delayed penalty call against Worcester to put the Bears ahead 1-0. Worcester held an 11-8 shots advantage through 20 minutes but trailed 1-0. Worcester outshot Hershey 8-6 in the second period but neither team found the back of the net. Jimmy Bonneau (4th FM) fought Steve Oleksy (3rd FM) in a great battle in front of the Hershey net at 8:26. Worcester trailed 1-0 after 40 minutes of play. Team Teal pour things on in the third with 19 mores shots on goal but Grubauer stood tall for his second shutout of the season. The Sharks outshot the Bears 38-20 in the contest but Hershey held on for the 1-0 win on home ice. The Sharks overall record falls to 8-8-1-0, 17pts, and 3-4-0-0, 6pts on the road this season.
2017 at Wheeling 4-3 SOL
(RAILERS) The Worcester Railers HC (7-6-1-1, 16pts) kicked off a four-game road trip with a 4-3 shootout loss to the host Wheeling Nailers (10-3-2-0, 22pts) in front 2,168 fans at the WesBanco Arena on Wednesday evening. Josh Monk scored his first pro goal, Chris Langkow extended his point streak to five games with a goal and an assist, and Ashton Rome also scored for Worcester while Eamon McAdam made 26 saves in the loss. Worcester extended their point streak to three games (2-0-1) in the road shootout loss as Frankie DiChiara was the only Railers player to score in the shootout. Worcester grabbed a 1-0 lead as rookie defenseman Josh Monk (1st) sent a bomb from the right point after a faceoff win by Chris Langkow from the right side at 5:25. The Nailers would get the next two as Garrett Meurs (10th) struck on the power play after a Railers turnover at 10:22 and Jeff Taylor (2nd) raced towards the front of the net and knocked in a rebound in the crease past Eamon McAdam at 14:30. Shots in the first period were 13-8 Wheeling as Worcester trailed 2-1 after 20 minutes of play. The Railers tied the score 2-2 with a power play goal of their own at 14:43 as captain Ashton Rome (6th) knocked in a Wade Murphy rebound past goaltender Sean Maguire. Railers netminder Eamon McAdam made some big saves in the second period as the two teams headed into the second intermission tied 2-2. Wheeling took a 3-2 advantage at 5:29 as Riley Bourbonnais (1st) struck at 5:29 but the Railers would tie the score again at 11:04. Chris Langkow (3rd) buried home a one-timer after tic-tac-toe passing by Nick Saracino and Matty Gaudreau to get the score to 3-3. Shots were 8-7 Wheeling in the third period as the two teams headed to overtime. A wild overtime saw Worcester get a two-man advantage after Cody Wydo was ejected for boarding Ashton Rome from behind at 2:02. The Railers would not score on the major penalty as the game headed to the shootout. Garrett Meurs and Hunter Fejes scored for Wheeling while Frankie DiChiara scored the only Railers goal in the shootout as Wheeling took the 4-3 win. All 36 players came together well after the game winner was scored but cooler heads prevailed as Worcester lost their first ever shootout game.
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