If the Railers are looking for a way to score more goals, it seems that an easy solution might be found high above the DCU Center ice: set the period indicator on the Daktronics board to “3” and keep it there. After last night’s 3-1 win over Trois-Rivières, with all three of their goals coming in the final 20 minutes, the Railers have now scored 28 of their 61 goals in the third period, by far the largest percentage of a team’s goals scored in a single period in the ECHL.
The Lions got their only goal in the game in the first period on a power play gifted to them by referee Bobby Esposito when Riley Piercey and Trois-Rivières defender Miguel Tourigny got together in the neutral zone. Both were clutching and grabbing at each other, and it was only after Piercey dropped the gloves that Referee Esposito saw fit to call a penalty. Somehow out of fracas Piercey got a minor for holding the stick and Tourigny, who was the initial aggressor in the altercation, got off scot free.
During that power play Trevor Cosgrove anticipated a pass from the point down the along the boards, and when that pass didn’t happen Anthony Beauregard was left all alone out front to deflect Justin Ducharme’s pass past Railers netminder Henrik Tikkanen, who had no chance at that bid at all.
But Tikkanen stopped the rest of the Lions shots, and kept the Railers in the game.
Through two frames Trois-Rivières goaltender Joe Vrbetic was pretty good himself, and while he didn’t need to make the quality saves Tikkanen did he had to make a greater quantity of them.
Into the third period the teams went, with Worcester spending the first minute on the power play. They didn’t score on that man advantage–they were 0-4 in the contest–but they did light the lamp moments later when Anthony Repaci was in the right place at the right time.
It stayed that 1-0 for most of the rest of the final frame, thanks to saves like this from Tikkanen.
Just when it looked like the game would be heading to extra time, and potentially causing issues with this writer’s dinner reservations, Joey Cipollone scored his second in as many nights to give Worcester its first lead of the contest with 1:26 remaining.
Ashton Calder added an empty netter, officially listed as 19:59 but the replay shows it was a tick or two earlier than that, for the 3-1 final.
The Railers tweeted alternate angles of all three goals, so feel free to enjoy watching those.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Todd Goehring, Christian Krygier (IR/upper), Tristan Lennox (IR/lower), Jack Quinlivan (IR/unknown), Brendan Robbins, Quinn Ryan (IR/unknown), and Jake Schultz. With Tristan Lennox on injured reserve the Railers signed ECHL veteran John Muse to a standard contract, and he was the backup netminder. There was no word on Lennox’s injury nor how long he might potentially be out, but many fans say they saw him wearing a large knee brace in the DCU Center.
As late as early afternoon Friday Reece Newkirk was still listed on the Railers roster, but there is no doubt that he was reassigned by the New York Islanders from Worcester to Bridgeport on Monday. As he has been many times this season, Newkirk was scratched in the AHL Islanders’ game on Friday.
The Railers power play has been nothing short of terrible for most of this season and is mired in an 0-22 slump. Worcester has not scored a power play goal since December 1 against Norfolk, a game they lost 4-1. Over that same span their penalty killers are operating at just 79% (22 for 28). If you’re looking for a reason why Worcester is languishing at the bottom of the standings, special teams are right near the top.
Trois-Rivières dark jerseys are a very nice “Quebec blue” color and would have looked even better against the Railers orange third jerseys. But, once again, we were denied a color on color matchup as Worcester went with their home whites. This writer didn’t complain about it much to Railers COO Mike Myers as the longtime jersey designer was showing some nice previews of the IceCats-themed jersey the Railers will be wearing on January 13th.
A shoutout to Railers DJ Ryan McConville for playing “Magic Bus” by The Who Friday night. If you know why, you were likely smiling. If you didn’t know why, you probably didn’t notice the song at all.
A quick edit as I almost forgot, if you read this posting before the second intermission of Saturday’s game head on over to the Booster Club table behind section 109 to take part in the Club’s annual Christmas Ornament raffle, which are hand-made ornaments signed by Railers players. Proceeds from the raffle will benefit the Nick Pennucci Scholarship Fund.
As this writer occasionally does, even though they’re doing it from afar I’ll gladly welcome the new blogger writing about hockey in Worcester. I won’t say who it is nor who they write for at the moment, but I will mention that if they decide to use information from this blog without attribution again next time I’ll mention who and where without a moment’s hesitation, and in what will likely be a less than friendly manner. Consider that fair warning.
The three stars of the game were:
1. WOR – 12 Joey Cipollone
2. WOR – 81 Anthony Repaci
3. WOR – 39 Henrik Tikkanen
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Riley Piercey.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Jenkins / Callin
Kuefler / Pivonka / Calder
Howdeshell / Cipollone / Piercey
Bakanov / Walsh / X
Garat / Welsh
Verrier / Copeland
Kulakov / Cosgrove
Our affiliates last night
Bridgeport 5, Hartford 4
In the ECHL’s North Division
Maine 5, Adirondack 4
Reading 4, Norfolk 1
BOX SCORE
Trois-Rivières 1 0 0 – 1
Worcester 0 0 3 – 3
1st Period-1, Trois-Rivières, Beauregard 10 (Ducharme, Tourigny), 9:08 (PP). Penalties-Piercey Wor (holding the stick), 8:32; Ortiz Tr (slashing), 12:16.
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Copeland Wor (cross-checking), 5:44; Parker-Jones Tr (hooking), 6:49; Copeland Wor (hooking), 16:19; Novak Tr (slashing), 19:00.
3rd Period-2, Worcester, Repaci 6 (Callin, Copeland), 1:27. 3, Worcester, Cipollone 2 18:34. 4, Worcester, Calder 11 (Cosgrove), 19:59 (EN). Penalties-Hjorth Tr (interference), 9:10; Laaouan Tr (roughing), 14:41; Piercey Wor (slashing), 14:41; Callin Wor (slashing), 16:20.
Shots on Goal-Trois-Rivières 11-7-3-21. Worcester 8-13-14-35.
Power Play Opportunities-Trois-Rivières 1 / 4; Worcester 0 / 4.
Goalies-Trois-Rivières, Vrbetic 7-11-1-0 (34 shots-32 saves). Worcester, Tikkanen 4-5-1-1 (21 shots-20 saves).
A-1,886
Referees-Bobby Esposito (35), Evan Reddick (21).
Linesmen-Robert Griffin (53), Patrick Philbin (88).
—
Got something you loved (or hated) about the post? Head on over to the 210Sports Facebook page and leave a comment. You could comment on this post too, but fair warning, the spam filter catches lots of stuff it shouldn’t and it might be weeks before we see your comment. While you’re there, please give the page a like and a follow.
-30-
210Sports 