The Worcester Railers hosted the Reading Royals Friday night in the first of two games this weekend between the ECHL North Divison rivals on the pink-iced DCU Center and led by an Anthony Repaci hat trick and an overtime game-winner by Jimmy Lambert the Railers secured two points with a 4-3 victory.
With the Railers having a full highlight package up so early we’ll go old school Sharkspage and just pop those in right on top.
Some additional stuff on what was shown on the video…at the 2:40 mark you can see Railers goaltender Henrik Tikkanen take a shot up high on the mask. Head Athletic Trainer Alex Maring went out to the ice to see if Tikkanen was OK, and ended up picking up what looked to be a couple of teeth from the ice. Tikkanen stayed in the game and made 40 saves on the night.
That huge hit by Conor Breen on Evan Barratt at the 3:50 mark was called interference by referee Trevor Wohlford, and from this writer’s perch looked like a good call live. The video seems to show otherwise, with Barratt pushing the puck forward and then jumping over Quin Ryan in an attempt to continue possession of the puck. That made Barratt the puck carrier, and eligible to be checked.
The Reading “goal” at 4:25 was after a long review ruled goaltender interference, and was waved off by referee Wohlford. The video was shown on the Daktronics board in the arena long before Wohlford began his review and was pretty clear that Tikkanen was tripped by Royals forward Brett Boeing. Not sure what took Wohlford so long.
The Royals’ goal shown at 5:00 that counted was absolutely a good goal, and after the video was shown from the goal camera view what Tikkanen and Worcester captain Bobby Butler were complaining about looked like a standard screen in front of the net. Referee Wohlford did take a quick look, and it was very quick, before ruling it a good goal.
Several of the Reading fans at the DCU Center for the weekend were complaining postgame that Lambert was offside on the game-winning goal. The video shows that he wasn’t. Lambert has clear possession of the puck while he and the puck are in the neutral zone. By rule, the puck carrier can’t be offside, so that’s an onside play and a good goal.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Collin Adams (upper body), Ken Appleby (IR/unknown), Phil Beaulieu (IR/unknown), Jared Brandt (IR/lower), Zack Bross (IR/unknown), Liam Coughlin (IR/unknown), Christain Evers (unavailable), Reece Newkirk (unavailable), Jack Quinlivan (IR/unknown), and Nolan Vesey (IR/unknown). Brent Moran was the backup goaltender. Worcester ended up going with ten forwards and seven defensemen, with defender Noah Delmas also taking a few shifts up front.
Earlier this week the Railers signed defenseman Timothy Faulkner and Springfield assigned forward Jacob Hayhurst to the team. Worcester then suspended Blake Christensen as the forward went off to Europe to play for the Swiss second-tier team HC Thurgau. With many players heading to the injury list general manager Jordan Smotherman signed forward Paul Boutoussov, who played last season for Babson College and currently works for IPG Photonics in Marlborough. Boutoussov likely played more Friday night than Smotherman originally thought he would, but he didn’t look terrible out there. No matter how well he plays Boutoussov is in just for the weekend.
As he was last weekend, Friday night Worcester State University men’s ice hockey head coach Bob Deraney was behind the bench with Smotherman and assistant coach Jimmy Sharrow. He won’t be there Saturday as Worcester State visits the 12th-ranked Plymouth State University Panthers, so Deraney wore his pink tie last night.
The highlight video, nor my tweet below, really show how nice the pick ice looks at the DCU Center. After the colossal failure the first time they used pink ice during the WorSharks era the DCU Center crew has gotten it just about perfect each time. The decision by Railers COO Mike Myers to keep the white faceoff circles really makes the pink ice pop.
The above joke about peeps was told to Myers while Bill Ballou was around, which led to a long conversation that included Railers Booster Club president Rich Lundin and Dylan “WooHockey” Schofield about candy. If there is anyone in the world that needs to write a book or have a podcast it’s Ballou. He has so many stories worth sharing.
Much to the dismay of fans, including this writer, there was essentially no movement this past week to revamp the roster. There are whispers that Worcester will be getting some players down from the AHL soon, which would solve the “warm body” issue the current roster has, so we’ll go back to business as usual for now.
The three stars of the game were:
1. WOR – 81 Anthony Repaci
2. WOR – 44 Jimmy Lambert
3. REA – 9 Charlie Gerard
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Henrik Tikkanen
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Beaudoin / Lambert
Bakanov / Hayhurst / Butler
Fea / Jerry / Ryan
Boutoussov
Delmas
Cosgrove / McCarthy
Faulkner / McGurty
Terchiyev / Delmas
Breen
Our affiliates last night
Springfield 4, Rochester 0
In the ECHL’s North Division
Newfoundland 5, Adirondack 4
Norfolk 4, Wheeling 3 OT
Maine 4, Trois-Rivieres 2
North Division Standings
Team points (points percentage) games in hand over Worcester
Newfoundland 67 (.728) 1
Reading 55 (.625) 3
Maine 54 (.643) 5
Worcester 51 (.543)
Adirondack 38 (.442) 4
Trois-Rivieres 36 (.400) 2
Norfolk 23 (.250) 1
BOX SCORE
Reading 2 0 1 0 – 3
Worcester 2 1 0 1 – 4
1st Period-1, Reading, Millman 7 (McFadden, Barratt), 0:26. 2, Worcester, Repaci 10 (Cosgrove, Lambert), 4:47 (PP). 3, Reading, Gerard 21 (Newton, Chen), 7:11. 4, Worcester, Repaci 11 (Lambert, Hayhurst), 9:16. Penalties-Hoffmann Rea (tripping), 4:38.
2nd Period-5, Worcester, Repaci 12 (Beaudoin, Lambert), 0:36. Penalties-Breen Wor (interference), 2:56; Jerry Wor (tripping), 18:47.
3rd Period-6, Reading, Gerard 22 (Barratt, Newton), 14:36 (PP). Penalties-served by Boutoussov Wor (bench – too many men), 2:36; Barratt Rea (slashing), 5:44; Faulkner Wor (tripping), 12:38; Butler Wor (high-sticking), 18:28.
1st OT Period-7, Worcester, Lambert 11 (Beaudoin), 1:16. Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Reading 15-17-11-0-43. Worcester 7-7-2-1-17.
Power Play Opportunities-Reading 1 / 5; Worcester 1 / 2.
Goalies-Reading, Maier 11-7-3-0 (17 shots-13 saves). Worcester, Tikkanen 13-12-2-0 (43 shots-40 saves).
A-3,049
Referees-Trevor Wohlford (38).
Linesmen-Shane Kanaly (74), Ryan Robinson (96).
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