It’s amazing how great goaltending makes you look better than you are, or more importantly, how well it hides as bad as you are doing. On Sunday’s New Year’s Eve tilt at Santander Arena the Worcester Railers offense sputtered all game, but goaltender John Muse was firing on all cylinders and kept his squad in the game until Ashton Calder’s power play tally in the third period put the Railers ahead 2-1, and Muse made that lead stand up.
Muse saved 32 of 33 Reading shots in the win and went an amazing 60 of 61 over the weekend. You should never trust this writer’s math, but that works out to a .984 save percentage, and in some far easier math, a 0.50 goals against average.
Worcester’s power play, which has been atrociously bad for most of the season, seems to have found its way as the Railers scored with the man advantage for the fifth consecutive game, and for the second game in a row scored multiple power play goals. They are seven for their last 15 chances, a streak that would have sounded like pure fantasy just a couple of weeks ago.
On the power play, Joey Cipollone gave his team the 1-0 lead with a shot through a screen at 11:53 of the opening period. Ashton Calder began the play by dumping the puck into the left wing corner, where Quinn Ryan was easily the first to reach it. He then passed to Cipollone all alone above the right wing circle, and after a couple strides Cipollone fired the puck on net. Royals netminder Nolan Maier got a piece of it with the blocker, but it made it past him and slowly rolled into the net.
It stayed 1-0 into the third period where Matt Brown’s goal at 4:31 snapped John Muse’s shutout streak at 104:31, which by my numbers is the longest scoreless streak to start a Worcester pro hockey career. I’m sure Bill Ballou will be checking in at some point to confirm. The previous record based on my notes belonged to the IceCats’ Rich Parent, who went 99:33 of play before allowing his first goal against for Worcester. That 104:31 streak falls short of Henrik Tikkanen’s Railers franchise record shutout streak of 116:57.
That goal happened while Worcester should have been on at least a minor power play, and more probably a major man advantage, after Ryan Chyzowski elbowed Quinn Ryan at center ice at the 3:03 mark of the period. Ryan was down and wasn’t moving, but eventually skated off under his own power after being tended to by Railers trainer Alex Maring. Neither referee JR Stragar nor David Lilly decided to call a penalty after the incident, with the only possible excuse being they didn’t see it despite it happening right next to the puck. Riley Piercey was then forced to administer some frontier justice, which he did. Ryan eventually returned to the game, and it’s a good bet the Railers will be sending that video in.
Calder’s booming slapshot at 10:23 on the power play gave the Railers a 2-1 lead, and that was all the Muse would need to earn his team another two points.
The Railers didn’t tweet out any highlights–this writer didn’t ask why but it is likely because all the interns are home for the holidays–so we’ll include Reading’s YouTube highlight package.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Michael Higgins, Keeghan Howdeshell, Christian Krygier (IR/upper body), Tristan Lennox (IR/lower body), and Jack Quinlivan (IR/lower body). Kaden Fulcher was the backup goaltender. With Higgins a healthy scratch Brendan Robbins moved back to defense.
In one of those odd, head scratching stats, the Railers began 2023 with a game that featured two fights and ended 2023 with the same thing. They had no other two-fight games during the calendar year. Sunday featured the previously mentioned Piercey and Chyzowski altercation, but earlier in the contest, Daylan Kuefler took on Jake Bricknell behind the Worcester net. Last January 1st, Blake Christensen and Connor Doherty went at it in a rare third-period tied game battle. Even rarer, at the end of the overtime period Brent Beaudoin dropped the gloves with Alex-Olivier Voyer. Christensen and Voyer both missed out on Gordie Howe hat tricks needing an assist.
Worcester and Reading have played many multiple games series against each other, and the Railers gaining five out of a possible six points against the Royals is by far the best they’ve ever done at Santander Arena. Worcester did take four out of six against Reading at the DCU Center early on in the Railers’ inaugural campaign and has swept a two game series in Reading a couple times. The two clubs have also had some series where they bounced back and forth between the cities, and those usually didn’t work out especially well for the Railers either.
With the win, the Railers’ record over the 2023 calendar year ends up being 29-33-6-2 over 70 games, for a .471 points percentage. Not exactly a record setting year for the franchise.
The three stars of the game were:
1. WOR – 16 Ashton Calder
2. REA – 37 Matt Brown
3. WOR – 40 John Muse
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Joey Cipollone.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Jenkins / Callin
Kuefler / White / Calder
Bakanov / Cipollone / Piercey
X / Ryan / Goehring
Garat / Welsh
Verrier / Copeland
Kulakov / Robbins
Our affiliates last night
Pittsburgh 3, NY Islanders 1
In the ECHL’s North Division
Wheeling 4, Norfolk 1
Adirondack 3, Newfoundland 1
BOX SCORE
Worcester 1 0 1 – 2
Reading 0 0 1 – 1
1st Period-1, Worcester, Cipollone 3 (Ryan, Calder), 11:53 (PP). Penalties-Chyzowski Rea (hooking), 10:39; Kuefler Wor (fighting – major), 14:58; Bricknell Rea (fighting – major), 14:58.
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Verrier Wor (slashing), 11:30; Bricknell Rea (elbowing), 11:30.
3rd Period-2, Reading, Brown 11 (Sellar), 4:31. 3, Worcester, Calder 14 (Welsh, Repaci), 10:23 (PP). Penalties-Piercey Wor (fighting – major, game misconduct – fighting prior to the drop of the puck), 3:21; Chyzowski Rea (fighting – major, game misconduct – fighting prior to the drop of the puck), 3:21; Fawcett Rea (slashing), 8:47; Paliani Rea (tripping), 9:31; Robbins Wor (holding), 13:15.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 3-7-6-16. Reading 11-15-7-33.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 2 / 3; Reading 0 / 1.
Goalies-Worcester, Muse 2-0-0-0 (33 shots-32 saves). Reading, Maier 7-7-0-1 (16 shots-14 saves).
A-3,262
Referees-JR Stragar (2), David Lilly (25).
Linesmen-John Rey (75), Judson Ritter (70).
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