Alas, there was no Sunday miracle comeback this week. After playing terrible hockey for most of the weekend and still managing to win Friday and Saturday the Worcester Railers’ poor play finally caught up with them Sunday at the DCU Center as they were whitewashed 3-0 by the Norfolk Admirals.
We’ve reached the point where this is what the Railers are this season: a team that plays poorly for huge stretches for most games but still finds ways to beat middle-of-the-pack teams. Well, that won’t consistently beat good teams, and it’s not a recipe for playoff success.
Goaltenders like Kristian Stead, who is at best a middle-tier SPHL netminder, shouldn’t be any sort of bump in the road for players as offensively talented as the Railers look to be on paper. But games aren’t played on paper, they’re played on a 200′ by 80′ sheet of ice. A lack of any discernable offensive system and a roster full of players that win virtually no puck battles hampers the Railers each and every night.
Think about the number of times in a game an opponent ends up all alone near the Railers net and compare it to the number of times a Worcester player gets that opportunity in the offensive zone. Think about all the odd-man rushes opponents manufacture and the number of quality scoring chances they get because of it and the number of times Railers players have opportunities like that and fail to even get a shot off.
Still time to fix this, if there is any interest in doing so.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Zsombor Garat, Todd Goehring (IR/unknown), Christian Krygier (IR/upper body), Tristan Lennox (IR/lower body), and Riley Piercey. John Muse, rocking an IceCats hat on the bench, was the backup goaltender. Garat was involved in the “Bowling for linesmen” incident Saturday night, so seeing it could be a coincidence he sat on Sunday we’ll just keep him as a healthy scratch.
One quick video review from Sunday’s game. Sitting at my usual perch both Rich Lundin and I thought we saw Mark Liwiski slew foot John Copeland as both were racing into the Worcester zone for a loose puck with under a minute to go. Copeland then went after Liwiski and got called for cross-checking. After looking at the video, and seeing there are literally no other players anywhere near Copeland or Liwiski to block the view of the play, it’s hard to fathom how referees Casey Terreri and Jack Young could have missed it. Slew footing is a match penalty so the linesmen can also report the infraction to the referees. Neither Matthew Heinen nor Antoine Bujold-Roux did so. Four sets of eyes missed a penalty that could have turned the tide of the game, and worse, one set of eyes called a penalty on Copeland.
Looking back to Saturday night, of the 7,094 in attendance it seems none of those people writes for the Worcester Telegram as they had no game story. The only mention of the game at all was included in the article about the Grafton vs Nashoba high school game written by reporter Tommy Cassell, and that was literally just the score and a quote from Railers COO Mike Myers that appears to have been gotten before the Railers/Admirals game even started. Because Cassell’s Twitter direct messages aren’t open–we’ll get into how silly it is for a local sports reporter to have their DMs closed later–Worcester Railers Booster Club president Rich Lundin tweeted at Cassell to tell him about something that was going to happen that would be a good story idea.
That story idea was that the Railers Booster Club, which started out as the Worcester IceCats Booster Club, was going to be giving former IceCats defenseman Shaun Kane one of his jerseys. It’s a shame what a rag the Worcester Telegram has become. Its reporters deserve better. Or at least the ones that bother to report on major happenings in the city anyway.
The loss put a damper on the professional debut of defenseman Ryan Dickinson, who signed late last week after leaving SUNY-Oswego. Dickinson looked decent out there. This writer didn’t notice any glaring mistakes and did note that when Dickinson looked a little unsure what to do he did what every defenseman should, he covered the guy closest to the net. It’s better to do the wrong thing at full speed versus the right thing at half speed, and while Dickinson didn’t seem to do the wrong thing very often it was always at full speed.
The three stars of the game were:
1. NOR – 31 Kristian Stead
2. NOR – 25 Brandon Osmundson
3. NOR – 8 Denis Smirnov
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Ryan Dickinson.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Jenkins / Callin
Kuefler / Pivonka / Calder
Howdeshell / Cipollone / Bakanov
X / Quinlivan / Bowen
Verrier / Copeland
Kulakov / Dickinson
Welsh / Robbins
Our affiliates last night
Providence 2, Bridgeport 0
In the ECHL’s North Division
Adirondack 6, Newfoundland 2
BOX SCORE
Norfolk 1 1 1 – 3
Worcester 0 0 0 – 0
1st Period-1, Norfolk, Osmundson 3 (Musser, Jameson), 4:57 (PP). Penalties-Robbins Wor (hooking), 2:58; Smirnov Nor (slashing), 14:12.
2nd Period-2, Norfolk, Smirnov 5 (Katic), 2:29. Penalties-Copeland Wor (cross-checking), 19:22.
3rd Period-3, Norfolk, McLean 3 19:15 (SH). Penalties-Liwiski Nor (tripping), 17:17.
Shots on Goal-Norfolk 14-8-12-34. Worcester 4-14-7-25.
Power Play Opportunities-Norfolk 1 / 2; Worcester 0 / 2.
Goalies-Norfolk, Stead 4-1-2-0 (25 shots-25 saves). Worcester, Boyko 0-2-0-0 (34 shots-31 saves).
A-3,247
Referees-Jack Young (36), Casey Terreri (14).
Linesmen-Matthew Heinen (93), Antoine Bujold-Roux (72).
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