Well, that was unexpected.
Playing in a building that the Railers have historically struggled in and facing a Reading Royals five-game winning streak a 5-0 victory should have been hard to imagine, but that’s exactly what veteran netminder John Muse delivered for Worcester at the Santander Arena Friday night.
In a shutout, it’s the first goal of the game that’s listed as the game-winner, and that goal belonged to defenseman Ryan Verrier, who notched his first ECHL goal at 8:35 of the opening period.
There was no video posted of Riley Piercey’s goal at 11:55, and that’s a bit of a shame as it was a nice play all around. Conner Welsh, who was playing in his 100th pro game, intercepted a clearing bid by Reading and pushed the puck past two Royals players at the point right onto the tape of Blade Jenkins at the top of the faceoff circle to the right of Reading netminder Nolan Maier. Jenkins took a stride and threw a nice pass to Piercey all alone in the slot. Piercey’s one-timer beat Maier high to the blocker side to make it 2-0.
In the second period, Zach White would make it a 3-0 lead when he was sent in on a two-on-none by Joey Cipollone, and with Anthony Callin trailing the play White notched his 100th ECHL point.
Welsh would make it 4-0 at 12:55 with a booming power play one-timer.
Anthony Repaci would then move to just one behind Railers’ career goal-scoring leader Barry Almeida with his 59th tally for Worcester.
It’s a terrible camera angle in Reading, but even if the puck hit off Repaci’s skate as the video seems to show there was no kicking motion at all, so it’s a good goal.
Things got feisty in the third frame, with Piercey and Will Zmolek getting together at 14:40 to throw some punches after Matt Brown had crashed into Muse. After both Zmolek and Piercey both tumbled to the ice and were being helped to their feet both referee David Lilly and linesman Cameron Campbell frantically began waving toward the Reading bench for the trainer as Zmolek was ushered off the ice quickly. As of posting time no word from Reading as to what happened to Zmolek, and hopefully, it’s nothing serious.
With just under four minutes to go in the game things exploded again when Callin boarded Reading’s Adam Brubacher. With the defender down and initially being treated by Railers trainer Alex Maring the rest of the skaters all got together. A potential Royals power play was wiped out when Reading assistant coach Jason Binkley went berserk that a major wasn’t called, earning a bench minor and then a game misconduct.
The rest of the game passed without incident, and the two teams will meet again Saturday night.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Todd Goehring, Mike Higgins, Christian Krygier (IR/upper), Tristan Lennox (lower body), and Jack Quinlivan (lower body). Kaden Fulcher, who the Railers acquired from the Savannah Ghost Pirates in exchange for cash considerations, was the backup goaltender.
The New York Islanders announced Thursday that goaltender Semyon Varlamov was day to day, which necessitated a netminder recall from Bridgeport as Ken Appleby headed to Elmont, New York. In turn, Bridgeport summoned Henrik Tikkanen from the Railers, so Fulcher was traded for. With only five healthy defensemen on the roster, Worcester general manager Jordan Smotherman signed Mike Higgins, who was at the Railers training camp before being released. There were seemingly better available options for both lineup holes, so perhaps on the team’s return to the DCU Center, we’ll have more on why these players were selected.
The 5-0 whitewashing by Worcester was the most goals they’ve scored while shutting out an opponent since they defeated the Greenville Swamp Rabbits 7-0 on November 19, 2022. Despite that game being just over 13 months ago only two players, Blade Jenkins and Quinn Ryan, appeared in both blankings. Jenkins had a goal and two assists against the Swamp Rabbits and three assists against the Royals. Ryan had a goal and an assist in the Greenville game but was held off the scoresheet in Reading.
As was teased on Twitter, with John Muse’s shutout all three Worcester pro teams now have had a goaltender who registered a shutout in their first appearance with the team. The IceCats’ Travis Scott was the first to do it in a 4-0 win over the Springfield Falcons at the then Centrum Centre on October 12, 1996. Amazingly, it was also his first AHL regular season game. Daren Machesney was the first to do it for the WorSharks, blanking those same Falcons on February 11, 2011, at the Mass Mutual Center. Journeyman Machesney would go 2-3-1 for Worcester before being released, with both of his wins coming by the way of shutouts. Of course I teased all that forgetting that Mitch Gillam had already done that for the Railers, but eh, it happens.
Muse also became the oldest goaltender in Worcester pro hockey history to play in a game at 35 years, 4 months, and 29 days, beating out the IceCats Jon Casey, who was 34 years, 11 months, and 16 days old in his last rehab start with the IceCats in March of 1997. That record will only grow as Muse plays more games for the Railers. A good question would be who was the oldest WorSharks goaltender to play in a game, and this writer’s notes don’t include that. You can bet that will be known in short order.
This writer got a lot of questions, including a couple from Maine fans, about Anthony Repaci’s goal on Wednesday that wasn’t reviewed because the ECHL doesn’t review for high sticks on their own. It’s Rule 88.3 in the ECHL rulebook that lists the circumstances in which a video review can take place, and checking for a high stick is not one of the criteria. That’s because of the vastly different broadcast camera angles used in ECHL buildings and some would have virtually no ability to approximate an ice-level camera. ECHL referees do have a workaround if need be as they can check the overhead replay for an approved reason and then look for an obvious high stick. But on their own, a high stick is not reviewable in the ECHL.
The three stars of the game were:
1. WOR – 40 John Muse
2. WOR – 5 Zach White
3. WOR – 81 Anthony Repaci
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Blade Jenkins.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Jenkins / Callin
Kuefler / White / Calder
Howdeshell / Cipollone / Piercey
Bakanov / X / Ryan
Garat / Welsh
Verrier / Copeland
Kulakov / Robbins
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 5, Washington 1
Bridgeport 6, Springfield 5 OT
In the ECHL’s North Division
Norfolk 5, Fort Wayne 2
Newfoundland 3, Trois-Rivières 2 OT
Maine 4, Adirondack 0
BOX SCORE
Worcester 2 3 0 – 5
Reading 0 0 0 – 0
1st Period-1, Worcester, Verrier 1 (Calder, White), 8:35. 2, Worcester, Piercey 2 (Jenkins, Welsh), 11:55. Penalties-Robbins Wor (interference), 18:19.
2nd Period-3, Worcester, White 5 (Cipollone), 6:14. 4, Worcester, Welsh 3 (Repaci, Jenkins), 12:25 (PP). 5, Worcester, Repaci 9 (Jenkins, Callin), 18:28. Penalties-Wilson Rea (kneeing), 3:51; Cipollone Wor (interference), 4:05; Fawcett Rea (high-sticking), 12:08; Garat Wor (high-sticking), 19:05.
3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-served by Kuefler Wor (bench – too many men), 6:57; Howdeshell Wor (holding), 14:40; Piercey Wor (fighting – major), 14:40; Brown Rea (interference on the goalkeeper), 14:40; Zmolek Rea (fighting – major), 14:40; Callin Wor (boarding), 16:08; Robbins Wor (roughing), 16:08; Rea (game misconduct – abuse of officials), 16:08; served by Master Rea (bench – unsportsmanlike conduct), 16:08; Wilson Rea (misconduct – continuing altercation, roughing), 16:08.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 8-11-8-27. Reading 11-6-11-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 2; Reading 0 / 4.
Goalies-Worcester, Muse 1-0-0-0 (28 shots-28 saves). Reading, Maier 7-6-0-1 (27 shots-22 saves).
A-3,320
Referees-JR Stragar (2), David Lilly (25).
Linesmen-Sean Perry (42), Cameron Campbell (67).
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