No team in the ECHL has scored fewer goals than the Worcester Railers’ 98, which is really 97 when you eliminate the gift goal teams get for winning a shootout, and after losing nearly a quarter of those from the roster due to recent player recalls and releases the Railers find themselves in a terrible spot: chasing a playoff spot with no one that can consistently score.
And on Friday night, no one in a white jersey put the puck in the net as Worcester lost 4-0 in Fort Wayne, running their scoreless streak to 120:33.
You can’t win if you can’t score. The Railers have one player on their current roster with double-digit goals, with Anthony Repaci’s 11 currently leading the team. That 11 goals ties Repaci for 71st in the ECHL. Blade Jenkins’ 28 points currently lead the team, and that ties him for 61st in the league.
This writer has used “not good enough” a lot over the last couple of seasons, and here it is again. Those numbers are simply not good enough.
For the game, the Railers’ two fourth-line skaters were a combined minus-four with just a single non-quality shot on goal. This writer would bet a lot of money Alec Hagaman, a forward from Peoria (SPHL) could have done at least that. Now granted he’s 31 years old and may not be interested in moving up to the ECHL level, but I’ll also bet there was no inquiry.
Hagman’s teammate Alec Baer might be worth a look. Even though he’s not had great luck in the ECHL perhaps he’d shine in head coach Jordan Smotherman’s system, whatever that system is that no one outside the team can seem to figure out, and not in a good way for the Railers. Quad City’s Leif Mattson is probably worth a look too. Those are just three guys whose teams are reasonably close to Fort Wayne. You start tossing in players like Birmingham’s Drake Glover and at least one of those guys, or others like them, will eventually be good enough to make the team better.
In case you’re a glutton for punishment, you can click on the Komets’ highlight package on YouTube, but honestly, you shouldn’t bother.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Ryan Dickinson, Todd Goehring (IR/unknown), Christian Krygier (IR/upper body), and Tristan Lennox (IR/lower body). Josh Boyko was the backup goaltender. Before Worcester headed west to Fort Wayne both Ashton Calder and Daylan Kuefler were sent off to Bridgeport in various transactions. That left the Railers two players under the 22 they can carry on their active and reserve rosters, and like he did all last season and so far in this campaign, general manager Jordan Smotherman chose to not bring in any players to replace the missing ones in an attempt to make the team any better.
With it being the first time this season the team teams have met we’ll look at some roster and area connections between the two squads and there’s just one, with Fort Wayne forward Carl Berglund spending four seasons at UMass-Lowell, captaining the squad in 2021-22.
As expected, Ashton Calder did receive an assist on Connor Welsh’s goal from last Saturday, the goal that was scored into the displaced net. That goal now reads “3. WOR Welsh, (4) (Calder), 6:49”. In the same game, Jake Pivonka’s goal has been changed from even strength to a power play goal despite the goal seemingly being scored 2:01 after Carson Musser began serving his penalty for hooking. The graphic overlay on FloHockey shows one second left on the power play when Pivonka scored, but even though the game and penalty clocks run independently of each other a full two minutes has to have run off the penalty clock if 2:01 has run off the game clock.
The ECHL’s All-Star game was last Monday in Savannah, Georgia, and Trevor Cosgrove was supposed to be the Railers representative but couldn’t go to the game due to being recalled by Bridgeport. Cosgrove was a healthy scratch in the AHL Islanders two previous games and it would have taken nothing for them to allow him to play in the game, but they chose not to.
Norfolk’s Mark Liwiski had a goal Friday night for the Admirals in their 4-3 overtime win over the Newfoundland Growlers, which ordinarily wouldn’t be news in these parts except for the fact Liwiski should have been suspended for a slew foot on Railers defenseman John Copeland late in the second period of last Sunday’s game. And it’s not like there’s not a clear view of it on the video, it literally happens in the center of the frame with no other players visible. Norfolk is back at the DCU Center next weekend, and if the ECHL won’t discipline Liwiski it’s up to Smotherman to bring in a player to impart some frontier justice on Liwiski.
The three stars of the game were:
1. FW – 36 Brett Brochu
2. FW – 90 Xavier Cormier
3. FW – 37 Alexis D’Aoust
The 210Sports Player of the Game was the two guys the Railers could have signed and didn’t.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Jenkins / White
Piercey / Pivonka / Callin
Howdeshell / Cipollone / Bakanov
X / Quinlivan / Bowen
Welsh / Robbins
Verrier / Copeland
Kulakov / Garat
Our affiliates last night
Chicago 4, NY Islanders 3 OT
In the ECHL’s North Division
Reading 5, Maine 2
Norfolk 4, Newfoundland 3 OT
Adirondack 5, Trois-Rivières 4 SO
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 0 0 – 0
Fort Wayne 1 0 3 – 4
1st Period-1, Fort Wayne, D’Aoust 13 (Keppen, Cormier), 18:22 (PP). Penalties-Bernard Fw (hooking), 7:26; Copeland Wor (holding), 15:17; Garat Wor (delay of game), 17:12.
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Cormier Fw (slashing), 3:17; Kulakov Wor (roughing), 5:33; Wedman Fw (roughing), 5:33; Wedman Fw (holding), 14:27.
3rd Period-2, Fort Wayne, Ganske 2 (De Jong, Cormier), 3:35. 3, Fort Wayne, Szydlowski 6 (Dwyer, Cormier), 14:39. 4, Fort Wayne, Chiasson 2 (D’Aoust), 18:00 (EN). Penalties-Bernard Fw (delay of game), 1:23.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 7-15-14-36. Fort Wayne 17-9-12-38.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 4; Fort Wayne 1 / 2.
Goalies-Worcester, Muse 5-2-0-0 (37 shots-34 saves). Fort Wayne, Brochu 6-7-1-0 (36 shots-36 saves).
A-7,287
Referees-Will Kelly (7).
Linesmen-Luke Pye (56), Dan Kovachik (61).
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