Occasionally a loss is more than just not gaining two points, and unfortunately the Worcester Railers may have suffered such a fate as rookie goaltender Tristan Lennox left Friday night’s game in Reading with 6:54 remaining in the middle period in the Railers 5-2 loss to the Royals. He was replaced by emergency back-up Joel Eisenhower, who gamely kept his new squad in the contest, but Worcester couldn’t overcome Shane Sellar’s second period natural hat trick.
While Lennox left at the 13:06 mark that was not the point he was initially injured. Looking at the video you can see Lennox fall to the ice in his crease with 8:05 remaining in the middle frame after a non-contact encounter with Reading forward Ryan Chyzowski behind the Worcester net. As Lennox backs around the near post to get back into his crease he immediately drops to his knees as the play moves out of the Railers zone. From that point, every time we see Lennox he’s obviously laboring, and then finally needs help off the ice after trying to save Sellar’s hat trick bid.
It was Anthony Repaci who gave Worcester a 1-0 lead at 17:14 of the opening period. After a long video review by referee Steven Sailor, the goal was allowed to stand. Because it seems Twitter, err, X videos don’t automatically show anymore, we’ll have to go with using links.
The second period was all Sellar and the Royals, who led 3-1 after 40 minutes.
Tag Bertuzzi scored at 1:21 of the third period to make it 4-1. Blade Jenkins stopped the bleeding with a nice wrist shot that beat Reading netminder Parker Gahagen at 3:55, but Brayden Guy killed ruined EBUG Eisenhower’s bid for a Cinderella story when converted a Worcester turnover at 14:19.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Anthony Callin (Bereavement/Family Leave list), Joey Cipollone, John Copeland, Christian Krygier (IR/upper), Jack Quinlivan (IR/unknown), Quinn Ryan (IR/unknown), Henrik Tikkanen (unavailable), and Zach White. With Tikkanen unavailable Worcester signed Joel Eisenhower and an EBUG, and he entered the game at 13:06 of the second period after starter Tristan Lennox was injured.
The Quinn Ryan watch is officially over as Railers general manager Jordan Smotherman finally added the forward to injured reserve Thursday, 27 days after Ryan had played his latest game. That’s a minimum of 13 days that another player could have been brought in to take a look at, and considering the massive issues with this season’s squad not taking advantage of an opportunity to get an essentially free look at a player is a massive failure in roster management. Because that transaction is backdated to November 18th Ryan can be activated anytime.
Also on Thursday, Worcester finally got some help from Bridgeport as Reece Newkirk and Daylan Kuefler were assigned to the Railers. Newkirk had an assist in his season debut with Worcester while Kuefler was hardly ever mentioned by play-by-play man Tim Foley during the game.
In a trivia question that likely has an incredibly short shelf life, what do current Railers forward Keeghan Howdeshell and Worcester hockey alumni Mathias Laferriere and Chris Ordoobadi have in common? They all scored Teddy Bear Toss goals on Saturday. Howdeshell obviously scored his at the DCU Center, while Laferriere scored at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield’s 5-1 win over Bridgeport. Ordoobadi got his at Hertz Arena for the Florida Everblades, and in true Ordoobadi fashion, there was a dust-up right after he scored when he stepped in to protect a teammate.
While it wasn’t the one this writer expected, there was scoring change from last weekend as Aston Calder picked up an assist on Andrei Bakanov’s empty-netter last Friday in the Railers’ 4-2 win over Adirondack. Surprisingly, Zsombor Garat did not pick up an assist on Anthony Repaci’s tying goal on Saturday despite clear video evidence that Garat should have gotten one for his drop pass to Todd Goehring.
With it being the first time this season the Railers and Royals have faced off this season we’ll take a look at the roster and area connections between the teams, and there aren’t many. Reading defender Mike Chen played three seasons at Salem State College, and center Devon Paliani eight games with Railers in 2021-22. His only two points for Worcester were in his debut with the club when he scored two goals on December 29, 2021, in the Railers’ 9-7 loss to Maine in a game where Worcester had only 14 skaters and goaltender Jason Pawloski couldn’t stop a slow rolling beach ball.
The three stars of the game were:
1. REA – 16 Shane Sellar
2. REA – 21 Tag Bertuzzi
3. REA – 19 Brayden Guy
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Joel Eisenhower.
Even Strength Lines
Newkirk / Jenkins / Repaci
Kuefler / Pivonka / Calder
Piercey / Robbins / Howdeshell
Bakanov / X / Goehring
Schultz / Welsh
Verrier / Cosgrove
Kulakov / Garat
Our affiliates last night
Boston 5, NY Islanders 4 SO
Charlotte 3, Bridgeport 0
In the ECHL’s North Division
Norfolk 4, Trois-Rivières 1
Adirondack 5, Newfoundland 3
BOX SCORE
Worcester 1 0 1 – 2
Reading 0 3 2 – 5
1st Period-1, Worcester, Repaci 5 (Newkirk), 17:14. Penalties-Cosgrove Wor (interference), 10:09; Cosgrove Wor (tripping), 19:58.
2nd Period-2, Reading, Sellar 6 (Bertuzzi, Brown), 5:21. 3, Reading, Sellar 7 (Hoffmann), 6:05. 4, Reading, Sellar 8 (Zmolek, Master), 13:06. Penalties-Sellar Rea (high-sticking), 2:00.
3rd Period-5, Reading, Bertuzzi 6 (Nardi), 1:21. 6, Worcester, Jenkins 6 (Verrier), 3:55. 7, Reading, Guy 2 14:19. Penalties-Millman Rea (elbowing), 6:35; Jenkins Wor (slashing), 8:01; Brady Rea (high-sticking), 16:49; Cosgrove Wor (slashing), 19:59.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 9-10-9-28. Reading 13-9-9-31.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 3; Reading 0 / 4.
Goalies-Worcester, Lennox 5-6-1-1 (21 shots-18 saves); Eisenhower 0-0-0-0 (10 shots-8 saves). Reading, Gahagen 1-2-0-0 (28 shots-26 saves).
A-2,797
Referees-Steven Sailor (5).
Linesmen-JP Waleski (51), Judson Ritter (70).
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