Wednesday night the Worcester Railers played their first of three contests in a row at the Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland against the ECHL North Division leading Growlers and while the shot totals were close the scoring chances were far from even in a 5-2 Worcester loss.
This game was basically over before seven minutes had passed.
With Nolan Vesey in the box, Orrin Centazzo made it 1-0 at 4:56. Just over a minute later Pavel Gogolev made it 2-0 with Quin Ryan sitting in the sin bin. Former Railers defenseman Matt Sredl notched his first-ever pro goal at 11:21 to make it a 3-0 Newfoundland lead.
It was more of the same in the middle frame, only the Growlers could manage just a single goal when Centazzo lit the lamp again at 5:49.
The third period was really all about if Worcester would get shut out or not, and Colin Adams put one in to avoid the whitewash.
With time winding down in the third and the Railers heading on their first power play of the game–if this were a weekend posting there would be a lot more on that factoid, trust me–head coach Jordan Smotherman pulled Henrik Tikkanen to make it six on four, but Isaac Johnson converted into the empty net to make it 5-1.
Off the ensuing face-off Jake Schultz, an FPHL defenseman playing forward for Worcester, scored to cut the lead to 5-2.
But that was it, and another mark was made in the Railers loss column.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Phil Beaulieu (IR/unknown), Blake Christensen, Liam Coughlin, Reece Newkirk, and Jack Quinlivan (IR/unknown). Bret Moran was the backup goaltender. Earlier this week the NY Islanders reassigned Colin Adams from Bridgeport to the Railers, and Worcester signed forward Nick Fea from the SPHL’s Birmingham Bulls.
In other transaction news, Worcester released Jeff Solow, and the defenseman signed with the EIHL’s Glasgow Clan. It seems odd that the Railers wouldn’t have suspended Solow to keep his player rights, although perhaps they really just considered him a roster filler and aren’t interested in keeping his rights. At any rate, that gives Jake Schultz a chance to earn a full-time roster spot.
Finally got some information on why Bridgeport has three goaltenders on the roster, and that’s because Cory Schneider is day to day with the infamous “lower-body injury”. But that leads to a different question: when did he get hurt? He couldn’t have gotten hurt in Bridgeport, he didn’t play or practice after being sent down from the NY Islanders. And if he got injured while on the NHL roster, their CBA prevents him from being assigned to the minors while injured. Might we be seeing some salary cap shenanigans by the Islanders? Hopefully more on this later.
There was a delay to start the second period as the net behind Growlers goaltender Keith Petruzzelli couldn’t be set into the ice. With Railers fans all screaming at their screens “no drills” the Mary Brown’s Centre’s ice crew went out and was able to get the pegs into the ice without drilling. Although looking at the outcome of the game maybe the Worcester players were hoping for another mono-propylene glycol leak. Alas, the delay was just over four minutes.
While it seems Christian Evers has escaped what is supposed to be an automatic suspension for a late-game instigator minor in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Reading, the ECHL Player Safety department was kept busy by a familiar name: Mikael Robidoux. The Allen Americans forward was suspended indefinitely last Sunday for what was called a kneeing minor on Saturday. On Tuesday it was announced that in addition to the Sunday game he missed, “Robidoux is suspended an additional six games for his kneeing incident in the game and for being a multiple, repeat offender.” My issue is the hit, which was more of a trip, didn’t appear to be suspension-worthy. Was it moronic? Absolutely. But if anyone else had done it likely wouldn’t have resulted in a suspension. Being “a multiple, repeat offender” should only impact suspension length, not if a hit is worthy of supplementary discipline. Incidents should first be judged on what happened, and not who did it. Only after the “what” is determined to be worthy of a suspension should the “who” come into play.
The three stars of the game were:
1. NFL – 29 Orrin Centazzo
2. NFL – 35 Keith Petruzzelli
3. NFL – 10 Zach O’Brien
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Jake Schultz.
Even Strength Lines
Ryan / Adams / Butler
Vesey / Beaudoin / Repaci
Schultz / Jerry / Bross
Osik / x / Fea
Brandt / McGurty
Evers / Delmas
Trechiyev / McCarthy
Our affiliates last night
Games in progress at posting time
In the ECHL’s North Division
Games in progress at posting time
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 0 2 – 2
Newfoundland 3 1 1 – 5
1st Period-1, Newfoundland, Centazzo 16 (Solow, O’Brien), 4:56 (PP). 2, Newfoundland, Gogolev 11 (Johnson, Petruzzelli), 6:10 (PP). 3, Newfoundland, Sredl 1 (Suthers, Badini), 11:21. Penalties-Vesey Wor (tripping), 4:02; Ryan Wor (hooking), 5:37.
2nd Period-4, Newfoundland, Centazzo 17 (O’Brien, Skirving), 5:49. Penalties-No Penalties
3rd Period-5, Worcester, Adams 12 (Ryan), 7:40. 6, Newfoundland, Johnson 7 17:03 (SH EN). 7, Worcester, Schultz 1 (Bross, Jerry), 17:09 (PP). Penalties-Solow Nfl (roughing), 16:03; Samuelsson Nfl (tripping), 17:09.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 14-9-15-38. Newfoundland 17-11-12-40.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 2; Newfoundland 2 / 2.
Goalies-Worcester, Tikkanen 10-10-1-0 (39 shots-35 saves). Newfoundland, Petruzzelli 2-1-0-0 (38 shots-36 saves).
A-2,246
Referees-Brendan Schreider (12).
Linesmen-Darryl Butt (70), Sheldon Keough (47).
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