Longtime readers of this blog will note the cardinal rule that’s mentioned here far too often: never give up a goal in the first or last minute of a period. For once it wasn’t the Worcester Railers falling afoul of one of hockey’s great precepts, it was the Adirondack Thunder that did as the Railers scored three times in the final minutes of periods to defeat the Thunder 4-2 at the DCU Center Friday night.
It was the Thunder who would get on the board first, at 9:31 of the opening frame, when Adirondack caught the Railers in a line change, and Shane Harper was able to send Tristan Ashbrook in all alone on Henrik Tikkanen. Ashbrook went high glove side on Tikkanen, where it seems teams are trying to shoot against the lanky netminder, to light the lamp.
Just when it looked like Worcester was going to have another one of those periods where they had lots of zone time and shots but come away with nothing, Riley Piercey made a nice tip of a Keeghan Howdeshell centering feed with 49 seconds left in the frame for his first pro goal to make it 1-1. Jake Schultz, who made a nice play at the blueline to keep the puck in the attacking zone, got the secondary assist.
Piercey skated to the bench in the celebration line and mimed throwing a monkey off his back.
The teams would play a scoreless middle frame, but the Railers needed to kill off a five on three that straddled the second intermission. Worcester’s penalty killers rose to the challenge and carried that momentum through the middle part of the third period, where Tikkanen and Blade Jenkins would connect to give the Railers a 2-1 lead.
Unfortunately, Adirondack would tie it on a goal that wasn’t as pretty when Zach Walker’s blast from the blueline hit the end boards and bounced right to former Railers forward Grant Jozefek. He actually misfired the puck but got just enough of it to float it over Tikkanen and in at 17:01.
It was Worcester captain Anthony Repaci who called “I got game”, or maybe he just thought it, when he lit the lamp with only 40 ticks remaining in regulation when he beat Thunder netminder Jeremy Brodeur to make it 3-2 Worcester.
Andrei Bakanov would add an empty netter from a tough angle with 14.6 seconds left for the 4-2 final.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Anthony Callin, John Copeland, Christian Krygier (IR/upper), Jack Quinlivan (IR/unknown), and Quinn Ryan. Tristan Lennox was the backup goaltender.
The question as to why Quinn Ryan isn’t playing was asked to Railers PR and play by play man Tim Foley, and he said he didn’t know. Ryan hasn’t played since November 17th against Cincinnati, and with Worcester’s offensive struggles his absence has been noticed. For whatever reason Ryan isn’t playing, it’s a huge blunder by Railers’ general manager Jordan Smotherman. If Ryan has been a healthy scratch, there’s no reason to keep him around and the team should move on from him so another player could be brought in to improve the team. If he’s injured, with 14 days already having passed he should immediately be placed on injured reserve since he could be activated when he’s heathy with no further wait. That would once again open a roster spot so another player could be brought in to improve the team. Either way, a failure from Smotherman.
Heading back to my perch after the second intermission I was asked by one of the “Eye Audio Radio” commentators–whose name I should know but I’m absolutely blanking on at the moment–what was up with Anthony Callin. His handwritten line-up sheet included Callin, and he mentioned that Callin was originally listed as in the lineup but Todd Goehring was playing instead. This writer never looked at the lines tweeted by the Railers and just retweeted them, but scrolling back we saw that it had been deleted. In the Railers pregame show Goehring was mentioned in the lines by Tim Foley, and Goehring was on the bench for the national anthem. It’s rare a change is made that late, but not unheard of, so we’ll just chalk it up to one of those things.
On the Blade Jenkins goal was something fans don’t usually notice but is a necessity in a single referee system. In the highlight posted above, watch linesman Matthew Heinen call the play onside, and then rush into the zone trailing the play. With referee Marc-Olivier Phaneuf behind him Heinen has to get to the goal line in the spot the referee would normally be in for any potential issue on a goal. There wasn’t one, and Heinen can be seen entering the frame signaling good goal.
It was another night that could have been a gorgeous color vs color battle as Adirondack was decked out in their black jerseys, but Worcester went with their whites as opposed to their orange sweaters. This writer, almost literally, ran into Railers COO Mike Myers postgame, and I registered my “complaint” about the team wearing white instead of orange. He laughed at that, as he always does, as he also loves the color-on-color look. He’s promised it will happen at some point this season. Every team in the ECHL’s North Division has a dark jersey that would not be confused for the Railers orange, so it should be happening a lot. But, alas, we’ll just hope for it to happen at all.
The three stars of the game were:
1. WOR – 81 Anthony Repaci
2. WOR – 39 Henrik Tikkanen
3. WOR – 29 Riley Piercey
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Andrei Bakanov.
Even Strength Lines
Bakanov / Pivonka / Calder
Goehring / Jenkins / Repaci
Robbins / Cipollone / White
Howdeshell / X / Piercey
Verrier / Cosgrove
Welsh / Schultz
Kulikov / Garat
Our affiliates last night
Utica 4, Bridgeport 1
In the ECHL’s North Division
@Newfoundland 4, Maine 3 OT
Trois-Rivières 1, @Reading 0
Jacksonville 4, @Norfolk 1
BOX SCORE
Adirondack 1 0 1 – 2
Worcester 1 0 3 – 4
1st Period-1, Adirondack, Ashbrook 3 (Harper, Stief), 9:31. 2, Worcester, Piercey 1 (Howdeshell, Schultz), 19:11. Penalties-Gillespie Adk (tripping), 12:22.
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Walker Adk (high-sticking), 11:33; Schultz Wor (hooking), 18:39; Robbins Wor (hooking), 19:12.
3rd Period-3, Worcester, Jenkins 5 (Tikkanen), 10:56. 4, Adirondack, Jozefek 1 (Wheeler, Smith), 17:01. 5, Worcester, Repaci 3 19:20. 6, Worcester, Bakanov 4 (Cosgrove), 19:45 (EN). Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Adirondack 8-6-11-25. Worcester 10-17-14-41.
Power Play Opportunities-Adirondack 0 / 2; Worcester 0 / 2.
Goalies-Adirondack, Brodeur 6-3-0-0 (40 shots-37 saves). Worcester, Tikkanen 3-4-1-1 (25 shots-23 saves).
A-1,804
Referees-Marc-Olivier Phaneuf (23).
Linesmen-Matthew Heinen (93), Maxime Bedard (65).
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