Ninety-one seconds.
That’s the amount of time at the end of the second period that it took for the Worcester Railers 2-1 molehill deficit to explode into a 5-1 mountain too high to climb in their Saturday night rematch tilt against the Trois-Rivières Lions at the DCU Center.
The Lions took a 1-0 lead after twenty minutes when while skating four-on-four Miguël Tourigny essentially stole a power play opportunity by simply dropping his stick after being stick-checked by Daylan Kuefler. Referee Michael Zyla was completely fooled by the play and called Kuefler for slashing. Thirty-five seconds later the puck was behind Railers netminder Josh Boyko off a shot by Tourigny.
It was that 1-0 lead because Boyko stood on his head the entire frame, as while Worcester was close in shots in the frame to Trois-Rivières 16-15, most of the high-quality bids were coming from the boys in blue.
Boyko’s fine play unfortunately wouldn’t carry him, or the Railers, through the entire game.
Just 34 seconds into the second period, while many fans were waiting to make their way to their seats after the first intermission, Blade Jenkins tied the score.
Tourigny would give the Lions a 2-1 lead on a wide-angle shot capping off an odd man rush. Ashton Calder lollygagging back instead of skating hard, while not a cause for the goal, didn’t help matters.
And then, with time winding down in the frame, the wheels fell off the train.
Charles-Antoine Paiement made it 3-1 at 18:29 on a play where the Worcester defense was far from perfect but his shot to the short side of Boyko was absolutely a save any ECHL goaltender has to make. Matthew Boucher then scored five hole on Boyko on a two-on-one break with 42.2 seconds left in the period on another play where an ECHL goaltender has to make that save. It doesn’t matter whose fault John Parker-Jones’ goal with 5.4 seconds left was, and there’s tons of blame to go around, it was the goal that sealed Worcester’s fate.
The Railers next head to Maine for a Sunday afternoon contest, with a 3pm puck drop.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Kaden Fulcher, Todd Goehring (IR/unknown), Christian Krygier (IR/upper body), Tristan Lennox (IR/lower body), Nick Pennucci, Jack Quinlivan (IR/lower body), and Quinn Ryan (upper body). John Muse was the backup goaltender. Prior to the start of Saturday’s game, the Josh Boyko and Ross Olsson signings were announced. From the first shift, it looked like Olsson was ready and up to speed, but unfortunately it sounds like this might not be a permanent addition to the roster just yet. Hopefully more on that later.
While Ryan returned to the New Year’s Eve game against Reading after being elbowed in the head by Ryan Chyzowski, he hasn’t played since. No penalty was called on the ice by referees JR Stragar and David Lilly, but the play was absolutely begging to be reviewed by the league. No discipline was announced, so either the Railers didn’t send it in, which would be worrisome, or the ECHL determined it wasn’t worthy of a suspension, which is much more troublesome. Either way, Worcester has been without a much-needed player.
In a quick video review of our own, perch mate Rich Lundin wanted this writer to check out an open ice hit against Anthony Callin during the second period for a possible slew foot. It happened so quickly it was hard to tell, and referee Michael Zyla called Matthew Boucher for interference. After just two views of the video, the second because I thought I missed something the first time, I can officially and unequivocally call it a phantom penalty as Callin had just released the puck and Boucher’s check was 100% legal and clean.
While it appears the Boyko experiment was a failure that hopefully won’t stop Railers general manager Jordan Smotherman from continuing to bring in new players in an attempt to make the team better. It’s not easy to catch lightning in a bottle, but it’s impossible if you don’t try.
Some stuff that didn’t make the posting for Friday’s game, for the first time I can ever recall I saw a starting goaltender be one of the last off the ice for warmups. The starter usually heads off with a good chunk of time left in warmups, but John Muse was out there Friday night until almost the second horn went off. I mentioned that to former WorSharks president and current Worcester State University athletic director Mike Mudd, who was in the building to watch Nick Pennucci’s pro debut, who called Muse a “cagey vet” who was probably watching the Lions warmup to catch players’ tendencies.
Another thing that popped up Friday was this writer’s hat purchase. The folks who sit in front of my perch asked if there was a hat trick would I be throwing my new hat on the ice. Spoiler alert: I wouldn’t have. But that led us to an interesting question: what do the Railers do with the hats after a hat trick is scored? So after stumbling into Railers COO Mike Myers on the concourse, I asked him. I seldom stump him with questions, especially something like that, but he told me he honestly had no idea. He said the WorSharks used to bag them up and leave them in the hallway, and they always talked about doing a display showing some of the hats from each hat trick, but they never ended up doing that. But he had no idea what the Railers do with the ones they collect off the ice.
Expect to see a scoring change on Brendan Robbins’ third-period goal from Friday night. The highlight the Railers tweeted doesn’t show it clearly, but on the YouTube highlight package the above angle is all but conclusive the puck deflected off Daylan Kuefler and into the net. That would have given him a goal and two assists in the contest and likely would have made him one of the three stars of the game. They don’t retroactively change those, but there’s nothing to say we can’t just name him our “Player of the Game” for Saturday, which would have been no one in the 5-1 loss. Being named “210Sports Player of the Game” doesn’t mean much, but a little recognition never hurt any player.
While it won’t be the color-on-color matchup this writer craves, it looks like the Railers will be wearing their orange jerseys at least once next weekend against Norfolk. With Worcester wearing dark IceCats-themed jerseys on Saturday the Admirals will be bringing their white sweaters to wear, meaning the Railers will also wear dark jerseys on Friday and Sunday. The orange sweaters are penciled in for Friday, and the way Worcester is choosing jerseys would mean a win in the game will put the Railers back in orange on Sunday. A loss and they’ll choose between the blue and orange.
And, yes, as many have learned over the last few days, the ribbing I give Myers and the Railers about color-on-color games is mostly tongue-in-cheek. While they absolutely should do them if they can, at least here in the Smotherman era the team generally goes with the color that got them the last win if they’re able to wear that color. Hockey is a game full of superstitions, and this is one Worcester has now.
The three stars of the game were:
1. TR – 31 Zachary Bouthillier
2. TR – 49 Matthew Boucher
3. WOR – 19 Blade Jenkins
In a sort of recount from Friday night, to even the score we’ll call the 210Sports Player of the Game for Saturday Daylan Kuefler.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Jenkins / Callin
Kuefler / White / Calder
Bakanov / Cipollone / Piercey
Howdeshell / X / Olsson
Kulakov / Garat
Verrier / Copeland
Welsh / Robbins
Our affiliates last night
Vegas 5, NY Islanders 2
Charlotte 4, Bridgeport 3 OT
In the ECHL’s North Division
Idaho 5, Reading 2
Indy 2, Norfolk 1
Adirondack 5, Maine 4 OT
Newfoundland 3, Utah 1
BOX SCORE
Trois-Rivières 1 4 0 – 5
Worcester 0 1 0 – 1
1st Period-1, Trois-Rivières, Tourigny 5 (Boucher, Ducharme), 17:53 (PP). Penalties-Ortiz Tr (cross-checking), 7:21; Paiement Tr (roughing), 17:08; Garat Wor (roughing), 17:08; Kuefler Wor (slashing), 17:18.
2nd Period-2, Worcester, Jenkins 8 (Callin, Repaci), 0:34. 3, Trois-Rivières, Tourigny 6 (Lariviere, Boucher), 7:12. 4, Trois-Rivières, Paiement 2 (Voyer, Novak), 18:29. 5, Trois-Rivières, Boucher 12 (Laaouan), 19:17. 6, Trois-Rivières, Parker-Jones 3 (Saretsky, Smilanic), 19:54. Penalties-Novak Tr (slashing), 11:00; Boucher Tr (interference), 15:22.
3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Laaouan Tr (tripping), 1:02; Saretsky Tr (roughing), 15:16; Cipollone Wor (double – roughing), 15:16.
Shots on Goal-Trois-Rivières 16-12-5-33. Worcester 15-12-7-34.
Power Play Opportunities-Trois-Rivières 1 / 2; Worcester 0 / 4.
Goalies-Trois-Rivières, Bouthillier 5-1-0-0 (34 shots-33 saves). Worcester, Boyko 0-1-0-0 (33 shots-28 saves).
A-3,901
Referees-Michael Zyla (34).
Linesmen-Shane Kanaly (74), Matthew Heinen (93).
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