Sunday afternoon the Worcester Railers played their third game in four days at the Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and put together what was easily their best game of the young season in a 2-1 overtime win against the Growlers. Trevor Cosgrove has the Railers’ lone goal in regulation, and Ashton Calder scored on the power play just 13 seconds into the overtime period for the game-winner. The win gave Worcester four of a possible six points for the visit.
This is an afternoon that Worcester did just about everything a team is supposed to do, except put the puck in the net. Now obviously that’s the single most important thing in the game of hockey, but it wasn’t due to a lack of quality chances. Growlers goaltender Luke Cavallin was the real reason the game went to the extra session, making 41 saves on the afternoon. Worcester goaltender Tristan Lennox was good in his own right, but Cavallin was the real story.
Well, that and the posts that both teams hit. This writer, who was at The District at the Railers watch party, wasn’t able to keep track of the number of times the teams rang the iron like he usually does, but it would have taken the fingers on both hands to tally up the number.
Branch Rickey once said baseball is a game of inches, and it usually is, but today it was hockey.
Midway through the first period, with Worcester broadcaster extraordinaire Tim Foley mentioning the Booster Club and the watch party, Cosgrove made a nice move through the Newfoundland zone and beat Cavallin high to the glove side.
The Growlers would get the equalizer on a gift power play at 14:32 of the middle frame that saw Anthony Callin sitting in the penalty box for holding despite it being his stick that was held by a Newfoundland player. After a Joe Masonius blast rang off the iron and with referee Will Kelly emphatically waving “no goal” the Newfoundland goal horn went off and the spotlight showed on the ice. In the play that followed Zach O’Brien put the puck in the net to make it 1-1.
Worcester head coach Jordan Smotherman complained to the on-ice officials about the potential distraction, but the goal correctly stood. That type of play is not reviewable at any level of hockey, and it would be up to the judgment of the referee(s) if the play should have been stopped. This writer looks at calls like this under one rule: would I want that goal to count were the roles reversed. Of course I would, so that should be a goal for Newfoundland. And, it was.
The Railers had a great chance in regulation to take the lead when Zach White was fouled from behind and was awarded a penalty shot, but once again Cavallin was up to the task and denied White’s bid. That broke a string of four successful Railers penalty shots in a row and makes them five for ten in franchise history.
With time winding down in regulation Worcester headed to the power play, and just 13 ticks into the extra session Calder put the game in the win column for the Railers.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Andrei Bakanov, Zsombor Garat, Christian Krygier (IR/upper body), Riley Piercey (upper body), and Anthony Repaci. Henrik Tikkanen was the backup goaltender. It seems that Bakanov didn’t make the trip to Newfoundland with the team as he’s been seen around the city this weekend by more than a couple of people. No word as to if he’s injured or if there’s another issue keeping him here. Perhaps more on this next weekend.
If the whispers from the Great White North are accurate this trip could be the last regular season visit to the Newfoundland for the Railers. There is lots of speculation that Growlers owner Dean MacDonald plans to move the team, with several cities in Ontario being mentioned as a possible home. Of course, this could all be for naught and it will be business as usual next season, but these rumors seem to be getting some traction in hockey circles, and usually where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Time will tell what the real facts of the situation are.
The three stars of the game were:
1. NFL – 33 Luke Cavallin
2. WOR – 16 Ashton Calder
3. WOR – 30 Tristan Lennox
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Trevor Cosgrove.
Even Strength Lines
Howdeshell / Callin / Ryan
Quinlivan / Robbins / White
Jenkins / Pivonka / Calder
Goodsir / Cipollone / X
Welsh / Cosgrove
Schultz / Verrier
Kulakov / Copeland
Our affiliates last night
Saturday
Washington 4, NY Islanders 1
Bridgeport 2, Springfield 1
No games Sunday
In the ECHL’s North Division
Saturday
Norfolk 2, Reading 1
Adirondack 4, Maine 1
Sunday
Trois-Rivières 3, Adirondack
BOX SCORE
Worcester 1 0 0 1 – 2
Newfoundland 0 1 0 0 – 1
1st Period-1, Worcester, Cosgrove 1 (Welsh, Cipollone), 8:31. Penalties-White Wor (fighting – major), 8:57; Victor Nfl (fighting – major), 8:57; Pivonka Wor (tripping), 17:32.
2nd Period-2, Newfoundland, O’Brien 1 (Cruikshank, Masonius), 14:32 (PP). Penalties-Kulakov Wor (roughing), 4:26; Noel Nfl (interference), 6:07; Callin Wor (holding), 13:32; Weiss Nfl (delay of game), 17:10.
3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Cruikshank Nfl (tripping), 19:41.
1st OT Period-3, Worcester, Calder 6 (Pivonka, Cosgrove), 0:13 (PP). Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Worcester 10-16-16-1-43. Newfoundland 13-9-6-0-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 3; Newfoundland 1 / 3.
Goalies-Worcester, Lennox 3-2-1-0 (28 shots-27 saves). Newfoundland, Cavallin 1-1-2-0 (43 shots-41 saves).
A-4,284
Referees-Brendan Schreider (12), Will Kelly (7).
Linesmen-Sheldon Keough (47), Brian Lambert (57).
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