The Worcester Railers headed to the Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls, New York to take on the Adirondack Thunder, and had a great opening few minutes but then pretty much couldn’t do anything right in a 6-2 loss Wednesday night.
It was a color-on-color match-up with the Railers wearing the blue road jerseys and Adirondack sporting their red jerseys. There aren’t enough of those during the season despite how easy it would be to do for teams who wear contrasting jerseys. Although based on the outcome maybe Worcester would have preferred the regular color on white contest.
At any rate, it was Jordan Smotherman getting the Railers on the board first.
But the rest of the frame would belong to the Thunder who scored three times on Worcester netminder Colten Ellis. Colin Long grabbed the first one at 10:13 banging home a centering feed from Robby Payne. Just moments after Drew Callin had a golden chance collecting a turnover in front of the Adirondack net but missed hit shot wide Alexandre Carrier connected on the other end off a rebound at 13:42. At 16:15 Patrick Grasso made it 3-1 Thunder when he tipped Ryan Smith’s blast on the power play.
The teams exchanged goals in the second frame, with Brent Beaudoin grabbing the Worcester goal to cut the deficit to 3-2.
After Mike Cornell was called for a very borderline closing the hand on the puck minor Joe Masonius gave Adirondack its two-goal lead back with a low 45-foot slapshot through traffic that found the back of the net at 14:59.
In the third period it was all Thunder again, with Worcester not even able to register a shot until there was 4:19 remaining in the game. Tyler Irvine made it 5-2 with a redirect on the powerplay at 4:13. Carrier added an empty netter for the 6-2 final.
Despite playing just three games in six days the Railers don’t play again for ten days when they’ll take on the Florida Everblades at the DCU Center on November 6th at 7pm for Worcester IceCats night. They play those same Everblades on Sunday the 7th, with a 3pm puck drop. Single-game tickets may be purchased through Ticketmaster at Ticketmaster.com or by calling 508-365-1750.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Collin Adams (upper body), Liam Coughlin (14-day IR/unknown), John Furgele, Ross Olsson (14-day IR/unknown), Tyler Poulsen, Anthony Repaci (lower body), Charlie Spetz (14-day IR/unknown), and Paul Thompson (suspended, game one of one). Justin Kapelmaster was the backup goaltender. According to the pregame show, Repaci took part in the pregame skate Wednesday morning.
With his one-game suspension announced Monday Paul Thompson becomes the first Railers player taking a mandatory vacation this season. He was suspended under “Rule #28 – Supplementary Discipline” as the result of an unpenalized slew-footing infraction at 5:26 of the third period. It happened when he and Maine forward Nick Master we battling for the puck in the neutral zone. Both fell to the ice, with Thompson being called for roughing and Master being tagged for interference. That might have been the end of that were it not for the DCU Center showing an ice-level replay of the incident which clearly showed Thompson taking Master’s legs out from behind. Had Thompson been called for the slew-foot during the game it would have been a match penalty, giving the Mariners a five-minute power play.
With all the excitement of opening weekend last week this writer forgot to take a look at any connections between the Railers and Mariners’ rosters, so we won’t repeat that mistake for Wednesday’s match-up between Worcester and Adirondack. For the Thunder Ivan Chukarov, Nick DeVito, and Alex Sakellaropoulos all spent time on the Railers roster. None of the current Worcester players has a connection to the Adirondack Thunder.
For those that don’t follow me on Twitter a couple of stats from Last Saturday’s 4-3 Worcester win. The 20 shots the Railers allowed in the second period are a franchise record for a home game and ties the overall period record, which has now happened three times. The 45 shots allowed in the game is a home franchise mark. The 19 saves goaltender Colten Ellis made in the second period sets a new franchise record for stops in the period in a home game and ties Mitch Gillam, who had 19 twice on the road, for the overall period record.
There’s been a change to the Worcester Railers schedule due to some issues in St John’s, Newfoundland concerning their lease as they’ve been locked out of their building by the city pending an investigation of misconduct by the team’s ownership. Worcester’s games on November 12, 13, and 14 that were originally scheduled for the Mary Brown’s Centre, the new name of the Mile One Center, will instead be played in Toronto at the Coca-Cola Coliseum. The game times are unchanged, but due to the change in time zones it will now be a 7pm EST start on Friday and Saturday, and a 4pm EST start on Sunday.
The three stars of the game were
1. ADK – 20 Joe Masonius
2. ADK – 9 Colin Long
3. ADK – 30 Mareks Mitens
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Jordan Smotherman.
Even Strength Lines
Christensen / Bibeau / Smotherman
Beaudoin / Hayhurst / Vesey
Jozefek / Pierog / Dudek
Callin
Malatesta / Cornell
Albano / McCarthy
Boudrias / McGurty
BOX SCORE
Worcester 1 1 0 – 2
Adirondack 3 1 2 – 6
1st Period-1, Worcester, Smotherman 1 (Boudrias, McGurty), 2:16 (PP). 2, Adirondack, Long 1 (Payne), 10:13. 3, Adirondack, Carrier 1 (Thompson, DeVito), 13:42. 4, Adirondack, Grasso 1 (Smith, Masonius), 16:15 (PP). Penalties-Vukojevic Adk (tripping), 0:34; Smotherman Wor (interference), 15:00; Christensen Wor (delay of game), 18:41.
2nd Period-5, Worcester, Beaudoin 1 (Cornell), 13:47. 6, Adirondack, Masonius 2 (Long, Ryczek), 14:59 (PP). Penalties-Cornell Wor (closing hand on puck), 13:53.
3rd Period-7, Adirondack, Irvine 1 (MacArthur, Thompson), 4:13 (PP). 8, Adirondack, Carrier 2 18:45 (EN). Penalties-Cornell Wor (roughing, game misconduct – fighting (continuing altercation)), 2:21; Pierog Wor (roughing), 2:21; Carrier Adk (roughing), 2:21; McCarthy Wor (tripping), 5:10; Malatesta Wor (tripping), 10:42; Albano Wor (delay of game), 10:51; Rivera Adk (tripping), 11:20.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 11-13-3-27. Adirondack 11-12-12-35.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 2; Adirondack 3 / 6.
Goalies-Worcester, Ellis 1-1-0-0 (34 shots-29 saves). Adirondack, Mitens 1-0-0-0 (27 shots-25 saves).
A-1,914
Referees-Riley Yerkovich (7).
Linesmen-Brandon Wormley (41), Adam Wood (44).
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