The good news for Worcester Railers fans is forward Blade Jenkins is starting to heat up right as the team begins a long stretch of road games in places where it’s hard for visiting teams to win. The bad news is an AHL team is bound to take notice and Worcester fans may lose him to the next level.
After his hat trick on Friday night in the Railers’ 6-2 win over the Trois-Rivières Lions at Colisée Vidéotron Jenkins now had eight goals in his last six games and is a team-leading plus-5 over that stretch.
It would have been a stretch to say Jenkins, or any Worcester player, was going to have a hat trick after watching the opening twenty minutes as it looked like it was going to be another one of “those’ games, where the Railers carry the play and generate scoring chance after scoring chance but just can’t get the puck over the goal line. They had 13 shots in the opening frame, many of them solid bids, but some bad bounces and timely saves by Lions netminder Zachary Émond kept them off the board.
As happens far too frequently when Worcester is controlling things at one end of the ice an opponent will find a way to take advantage of a mismatch or a Railers error to score. It was the former and not the latter that led to the Lions 1-0 lead when five foot seven inch, 154-pound Connor Welsh was outmuscled by Alex-Olivier Voyer, who is listed as seven inches taller and nearly forty pounds heavier than Welsh. Worcester goaltender John Muse made the first save but couldn’t make the second at 12:11 of the first.
The second period has not been kind to the Railers this season, but you couldn’t tell that by the action Friday night as Worcester scored three goals in just over two minutes to take a 3-1 lead. Jenkins began the scoring with a shorthanded goal at 5:36 off a nice pass from Welsh.
At 7:43 Worcester took advantage of a Trois-Rivières turnover and capped it with a Jake Pivonka laser to the high glove side of Émond.
Émond had no idea where the puck was on Reece Newkirk’s bid at 7:43, but he soon knew exactly where it was once the puck banked off the post and into the net behind him.
Voyer would tally his second of the game at 9:26 to make it a 3-2 Railers lead when a Ryan Verrier turnover eventually ended up in a wide-open bid by Voyer all alone in the slot.
Jenkins would give his team its two-goal lead back with a power play goal at 4:36 of the third with Andrei Bakanov setting a nice screen out front.
Aston Calder gave Worcester a bit of breathing room with a power play goal of his own at 10:14 to make it a 5-2 game, with Joey Cipollone setting a screen.
In a move that this writer thinks doesn’t happen enough, despite being down three goals Lions head coach Ron Choules pulled Émond for an extra attacker. Worcester had a few failed bids at the empty net, including one by Muse, until Jenkins threw one in from 170 feet away for the hat trick and the 6-2 win.
The two teams play again Saturday afternoon, with a 3pm ET puck drop.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were John Copeland (IR/unknown), Zsombor Garat (IR/unknown), Keeghan Howdeshell, Tristan Lennox (IR/lower body), Riley Piercey, and Zach White. Newly signed Cole Ceci was the backup goaltender.
There were lots of transactions over the past week, with the New York Islanders reassigning Ken Appleby and Daylan Kuefler from Worcester to Bridgeport. Whispers from Bridgeport say the move was to allow Appleby to have the AHL’s All-Star break off, and that makes sense to this writer, so we’ll just assume it’s true and move on from there. That move necessitated the Ceci signing. Ashton Calder and Reece Newkirk both were sent back to Worcester, with Newkirk’s stint likely just to make him eligible for the ECHL’s playoffs. Needing a roster space for Newkirk would explain the Kuefler transaction, so again, we’ll just nod and move on. Christian Krygier and Zsombor Garat exchanged places on the injured reserve list, and, finally, Brian Bowen’s second stint with the Railers ended with him on waivers and being claimed by Reading.
Last weekend there were two Rule 40 ejections in the ECHL for “Physical Abuse of Officials”. Adirondack’s Zach Walker had his infraction dropped from a “Category I”, which calls for a twenty-game suspension, to a “Category II”, and he was assessed the eight-game suspension required by that infraction. There has been no word on disciplinary action against Railers forward Zach White, who was given a “Category III” infraction in last Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the Lions. White was listed as “DNP” by the Railers, a designation they give to every player who doesn’t play and isn’t on injured reserve, so no information can be gleaned from that. White may have escaped punishment because of the language of Rule 40.4, which says, in part, “Any player who, by his actions, … deliberately applies physical force to an official solely for the purpose of getting free of such an official during or immediately following an altercation shall be suspended for not less than three (3) games.” White’s actions were not deliberate, but accidental. Even not intending to strike the linesman White did do so, and probably should have been suspended just based on that. A good chance we’ll hear more on this later.
As you can tell from the video highlights posted above, the Railers were in their white jerseys while Trois-Rivières were in their blue sweaters. It would have been another great opportunity for a “color rush” game with Worcester going with their orange third jerseys, but alas, no such luck. The good news for Railers COO Mike Myers is this writer isn’t needling him about it and instead is whining at the Lions for not allowing what would have been such a glorious weekend jersey matchup.
Two scoring changes from last Sunday’s 4-2 loss to Trois-Rivières, with Anthony Repaci losing an assist on Jack Quinlivan’s goal and Brendan Robins picking one up. That goal now reads “2. WOR Quinlivan, (1) (Verrier, Robbins), 7:12”. On Blade Jenkins’ goal, add an assist for Andrei Bakanov and take one away from Connor Welsh. That goal now reads “3. WOR Jenkins, (14) (Bakanov, Callin), 4:53”.
This is the reason why replay should exist, and it happened Friday night at Bon Secours Wellness Arena where the Greenville Swamp Rabbits hosted the South Carolina Stingrays. As you watch this you should note that the clock on the screen is one-tenth of a second behind the official game clock. You literally can’t score a regulation goal later than the 19:59.9 this goal is scored at. Referee David Lilly, in perfect position, empathetically points it’s a good goal. Replay confirmed.
There have been at least two goals that late at the DCU Center. Tomas Plihal had a goal at 19:59.9 of the first period, on Saturday, January 19, 2008, in the WorSharks’ 4-3 loss to the Providence Bruins. In a Railers connection, the primary assist on the goal went to Aston Rome. The second was scored by Jonny Evans exactly one year ago today to end the second period. In another connection, he plays for the Stingrays.
The three stars of the game were:
1. WOR – 19 Blade Jenkins
2. WOR – 37 Reece Newkirk
3. TR – 19 Alex-Olivier Voyer
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Jake Pivonka.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Jenkins / Callin
Newkirk / Pivonka / Calder
Bakanov / Cipollone / Quinlivan
X / Robbins / Goehring
Cosgrove / Dickinson
Verrier / Kulakov
Welsh / Krygier
Our affiliates last night
Bridgeport 5, Springfield 1
In the ECHL’s North Division
Norfolk 4, Toledo 3 SO
Rapid City 5, Maine 0
Adirondack 4, Reading 3 OT
Indy 5, Newfoundland 3
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 3 3 – 6
Trois-Rivières 1 1 0 – 2
1st Period-1, Trois-Rivières, Voyer 10 (Novak, Ortiz), 12:11. Penalties-Ortiz Tr (tripping), 3:11; Thomas Tr (tripping), 12:46.
2nd Period-2, Worcester, Jenkins 15 (Welsh), 5:36 (SH). 3, Worcester, Pivonka 10 (Goehring, Newkirk), 6:42. 4, Worcester, Newkirk 1 (Cosgrove, Pivonka), 7:43. 5, Trois-Rivières, Voyer 11 (Guay), 9:26. Penalties-Robbins Wor (hooking), 3:52; Cosgrove Wor (tripping), 14:42.
3rd Period-6, Worcester, Jenkins 16 (Repaci), 4:36 (PP). 7, Worcester, Calder 15 (Pivonka, Newkirk), 10:14 (PP). 8, Worcester, Jenkins 17 (Robbins, Krygier), 18:57 (EN). Penalties-Novak Tr (holding), 3:19; Thomas Tr (cross-checking), 9:20; Bakanov Wor (delay of game), 13:12.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 13-10-12-35. Trois-Rivières 10-16-10-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 2 / 4; Trois-Rivières 0 / 3.
Goalies-Worcester, Muse 7-3-0-0 (36 shots-34 saves). Trois-Rivières, Émond 4-2-0-0 (34 shots-29 saves).
A-1,641
Referees-Marc-Olivier Phaneuf (23).
Linesmen-Alexandre Bechard (44), Nicolas Boivin (82).
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