The Worcester Railers closed out their pre-Christmas schedule with an offensive explosion lead by Shane Walsh’s first professional hat trick and nine other Worcester players notching points in the Railers 7-3 thrashing of the Beast at the CAA Centre in Brampton, Ontario.
Other Worcester players with multi-point nights were Barry Almeida with a goal and two assists, Dante Salituro with three assists, and Jack Stander chipping in two helpers. Evan Buitenhuis made 33 saves for the win.
With it being the holiday season this writer was at a family Christmas party and didn’t get to see any of the game, so we’ll once again link to the game story on the Railers site for the particulars. If you’re interested in the Brampton point of view, you can check out what they had to say.
Railers Public Relations & Social Media Coordinator extraordinaire Cam McGuire tweeted out videos of six of the seven goals, so at the risk of making folks scroll a bit to get to the notes section, we’ll add those tweets here.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Bo Brauer, Anthony Florentino, Tanner Pond (14-day IR/upper), and Jordan Samuels-Thomas (unknown injury). Ian Milosz was the back-up goaltender.
Anyone that follows me on Twitter knows that I’m not particularly enamored with the officiating in the ECHL. It’s wildly inconsistent, to the point where I’m not sure the referee and I are watching the same game. But I except that it’s also a training league for referees, so I understand we’re going to see lots of missed calls. What I don’t except is a referee not knowing the rules. For the second time in Railers franchise history, a referee not knowing the rules cost the team a major power play.
With the two teams skating four on four referee Kyle Lekun called a spearing major and game misconduct on Brampton’s Lindsay Sparks and a roughing minor on the Railers Connor Doherty at 17:15 of the third period. ECHL rule 19.4 says that in the last five minutes of regulation or at any point in overtime if a major and an opposing minor is called the difference between the two penalties, in this case three minutes, is served immediately as a major penalty. Instead of skating three on three as referee Lekun had the teams doing it should have been a four on three major power play for the Railers, and three minutes put on the penalty timer.
Two Railers are climbing up the Worcester pro hockey all-time stat lists. With his two assists last night Barry Almeida now has 81 in his Railers career, tying him with Marc Brown for 10th all-time in Worcester pro hockey history. With his 19 penalty minutes Saturday Yanick Turcotte now has 462 PIM in his Railers career, tying him with Brad Staubitz for 9th all-time in Worcester pro hockey history.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, a final reminder for folks that the Worcester Railers Booster Club has some player signed Christmas ornaments for auction on eBay to benefit The Worcester Junior Railers Mike Ellsessar Scholarship Fund. The auctions end Sunday night. Clicking on each player’s name will open a new tab/window and bring you to their ornament page.
Barry Almeida
Ryan MacKinnon
Ross Olsson
David Quenneville
Yanick Turcotte
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 26 Shane Walsh
2. WOR – 34 Evan Buitenhuis
3. BRM – 61 David Pacan
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Dante Salituro.
Even Strength Lines
Almeida / Pierog / Thomas
Salituro / Dudek / Walsh
Turcotte / Payne / Callin
Olsson
Chukarov / Doherty
Stander / McKenzie
Murray / MacKinnon
BOX SCORE
Worcester 3 1 3 – 7
Brampton 2 0 1 – 3
1st Period-1, Worcester, Turcotte 1 (Stander, McKenzie), 0:41. 2, Worcester, Pierog 9 (Almeida, Thomas), 6:54. 3, Worcester, Walsh 5 (Salituro, Chukarov), 7:32. 4, Brampton, Pacan 7 (Leavens, Petgrave), 9:09 (PP). 5, Brampton, Bakker 1 (Leef, Pacan), 11:42. Penalties-Olsson Wor (hooking), 7:41.
2nd Period-6, Worcester, Walsh 6 12:28. Penalties-Henry Brm (interference), 4:43; Olsson Wor (interference on the goalkeeper, roughing), 9:28; Miller Brm (roughing), 9:28; Turcotte Wor (slashing), 12:54.
3rd Period-7, Worcester, Walsh 7 (Salituro), 1:00. 8, Brampton, Bradford 8 (Melancon, Miller), 7:59 (PP). 9, Worcester, Callin 2 (Almeida, Stander), 15:54 (PP). 10, Worcester, Almeida 7 (Salituro), 18:13. Penalties-Turcotte Wor (instigating, fighting – major, game misconduct – aggressor), 4:15; Fitzpatrick Brm (leaving the crease), 4:15; Bradford Brm (roughing), 14:44; Olsson Wor (roughing), 16:32; Henry Brm (roughing), 16:32; Doherty Wor (roughing), 17:15; Sparks Brm (spearing major, game misconduct – spearing), 17:15.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 17-8-10-35. Brampton 12-18-6-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 3; Brampton 2 / 5.
Goalies-Worcester, Buitenhuis 5-9-0-0 (36 shots-33 saves). Brampton, Fitzpatrick 2-4-2-0 (35 shots-28 saves).
A-2,246
Referees-Kyle Lekun (32).
Linesmen-Kyle De Coste (94), Scott Lawson (73).
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