Sometimes, no matter how good or bad your team is, an opposing goaltender just seems to have your number. This season for the Worcester Railers, that goaltender appears to be Adirondack’s Vinnie Purpura.
After Saturday’s 3-2 Railers shootout loss to the Thunder Purpura is now 3-0-1 this season against Worcester, giving up just 2.33 goals per game and saving 91.9% of the Worcester shots he sees. And in the first period, the Railers set a home record with 21 first-period shots. Purpura saved 20 of them.
That was likely the difference in the game.
Despite being outshot 15-4 over the opening 11 minutes, it was the Thunder that would score first when Jack Jeffers unleashed an absolute laser from the left circle that beat Worcester netminder Tristan Lennox clean low to the glove side. We usually show the opponent’s goals only to point out a Worcester error. We’re posting this one because it was an incredible shot.
With time winding down in the opening frame, it would be Keeghan Howdeshell that caused the stuffed animals to rain down on the DCU Center ice.
Adirondack would retake the lead at 5:44 of the middle frame on an NHL-quality tip of defender Tristan Thompson’s shot by Mike Gillespie. Once again, we’re showing the highlight because it’s a high-quality goal.
It would be Railers captain Anthony Repaci that would knot the game 2-2 with a nice backdoor tip of his own off of Todd Goehring’s intentionally wide shot. Zsombor Garat isn’t listed with an assist on the play but expect a scoring change later that will give him one.
And from there neither squad could get one behind the opposing netminder until Patrick Grasso beat Lennox in the fourth round of the shootout for the 3-2 final.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Anthony Callin, John Copeland, Christian Krygier (IR/upper), Jack Quinlivan (IR/unknown), and Quinn Ryan. Henrick Tikkanen was the backup goaltender.
Speaking with Railers’ COO Mike Myers during the first intermission, the plan for the Teddy Bear Toss was if the Railers’ first goal was scored with under two minutes to go in the period they would go to intermission and tack the remaining time on to the next frame. When Keeghan Howdeshell scored referee Marc-Olivier Phaneuf took a few moments to see how many stuffed animals were on the ice and then sent the teams to their dressing rooms.
Reader Anthony Pellegrine noted on Twitter that this is the second time the Railers have worn the Christmas Ugly Sweater jerseys, and it’s the second time they lost in a shootout wearing them. This writer would have looked that up, but Anthony did the work before I could, so I’ll pass along the credit for that part. Worcester hosted Maine on December 15, 2018, wearing Ugly Sweaters that weren’t all that ugly and outshot the Mariners 47-26 but still lost 2-1 in the shootout. Nick Sorkin was the only Railers player to beat Brandon Halverson in that game, both in regulation and the shootout.
Another note on the Ugly Sweaters, defenseman Zsombor Garat was wearing #20 instead of his usual #70. Garat started the season in #20 before switching to #70, and that likely was the reason behind the number change.
In sort of a “Did you know?”, this writer had a head-scratching moment when he saw that Thunder’s forward Mike Gillespie’s ECHL player page on Leaguestat shows him with zero games played for the Worcester Railers in the 2019-20 season. Not having any recollection of how that could be, off to The Googles I went, and it seems that he did indeed sign with the Railers on March 11, 2020. Gillespie, along with James Anderson, were signed by then-Railers general manager Dave Cunniff. The season was called off days later due to COVID. Anderson played one season in the EIHL after the missed COVID season and then left pro hockey.
The Worcester Railers Booster Club is doing a bit of fundraising in the community this week with an event on Wednesday at Papa Gino’s on West Boylston Street from 4pm to 9pm, with the group receiving a portion of qualified sales at the location. For more information, head on over to the Booster Club Facebook Group.
The three stars of the game were:
1. ADK – 29 Vinnie Purpura
2. WOR – 17 Keeghan Howdeshell
3. WOR – 81 Anthony Repaci
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Tristan Lennox.
Even Strength Lines
Bakanov / Pivonka / Calder
Goehring / Jenkins / Repaci
Robbins / Cipollone / White
Howdeshell / X / Piercey
Verrier / Cosgrove
Welsh / Kulikov
Garat / Schultz
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 3, Los Angeles 2 OT
Springfield 5, Bridgeport 1
In the ECHL’s North Division
Reading 5, Trois-Rivières 1
Norfolk 4, Jacksonville 1
Maine 6, Newfoundland 3
BOX SCORE
Adirondack 1 1 0 0 – 3
Worcester 1 1 0 0 – 2
1st Period-1, Adirondack, Jeffers 2 (Broughman, Blachman), 10:21. 2, Worcester, Howdeshell 3 (Piercey, Robbins), 19:07. Penalties-No Penalties
2nd Period-3, Adirondack, Gillespie 2 (Thompson, Jozefek), 5:44 (PP). 4, Worcester, Repaci 4 (Goehring), 13:33. Penalties-Cosgrove Wor (delay of game), 4:32.
3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Robbins Wor (hooking), 11:58.
1st OT Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Felix Adk (tripping), 2:13.
Shootout – Adirondack 1 (Ashbrook NG, Jeffers NG, Jozefek NG, Grasso G), Worcester 0 (Goehring NG, Calder NG, Repaci NG, Jenkins NG).
Shots on Goal-Adirondack 6-10-6-5-1-28. Worcester 21-4-8-5-0-38.
Power Play Opportunities-Adirondack 1 / 2; Worcester 0 / 1.
Goalies-Adirondack, Purpura 4-1-2-0 (38 shots-36 saves). Worcester, Lennox 5-5-1-1 (27 shots-25 saves).
A-5,029
Referees-Marc-Olivier Phaneuf (23).
Linesmen-Benjamin Lord (98), Maxime Bedard (65).
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