The Worcester Railers took on the Maine Mariners Tuesday morning at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, Maine in a school day game between the two North Division rivals, and goals by Zach White and Jake Pivonka were all that Worcester netminder John Muse would need as his 29 save performance backboned the Railers 2-1 victory.
White’s goal came just 35 seconds into the contest.
Owen Pederson tied the score 1-1 for Maine at 10:49 of the opening period as Worcester had just four skaters on the ice for over ten seconds when Andrei Bakanov went to the bench after a booming check from former Railers defender Zach Malatesta. The problem was no Worcester player replaced him until Brendan Robbins jumped on the ice just before the goal was scored.
At 7:28 of the middle period, Pivonka gave his team a 2-1 lead when he and Reece Newkirk teamed up on a nice two-on-one bid. For now Muse is credited with the secondary assist, but that will be changed to Artyom Kulakov.
That goal was enough for Muse, as he made 15 saves the rest of the way to preserve the win and two points.
For any interested, you can read what Bill Ballou had to say about the game on the Railers website.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Ashton Calder (unknown injury), John Copeland (IR/unknown), Todd Goehring, Jake Goldowski, Tristan Lennox (IR/lower body), Anthony Repaci (IR/upper body), and Ryan Verrier (IR/upper body). Cole Ceci was the backup goaltender.
Earlier this week Worcester General Manager Jordan Smotherman decided to fill the team’s empty roster spot by signing Goldowski, who is a right-shooting center. He was 10-19-29 in 44 games this season with Macon of the SPHL and is 4-1-5 in 16 career ECHL games, all with Jacksonville.
Anyone following along on Twitter the last couple of games knows my opinion of the job referee Hunter Mottinger did in the two games against Trois-Rivières last weekend. One obvious missed call by Mottinger resulted in a suspension as Lions forward Mason Kohn gets the next two games off for an unpenalized check to the head of Jack Quinlivan.
Kohn will miss Trois-Rivières’ games vs. Adirondack (March 6) and vs. Worcester (March 8). Unfortunately, despite this being just one of many blown calls it’s unlikely Mottinger will miss any games for his less-than-stellar weekend.
Just one scoring change from last weekend, and as we kind of expected Todd Goehring lost his primary assist on Connor Welsh’s opening goal on Saturday, and now Joey Cipollone is credited with a helper on the play. That goal now reads “1. WOR Welsh, (5) (Callin, Cipollone), 2:34”.
The three stars of the game were:
1. WOR – 13 Jake Pivonka
2. WOR – 40 John Muse
3. MNE – 7 Owen Pederson
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Zach White.
Even Strength Lines
Newkirk / Pivonka / Callin
Bakanov / Robbins / White
Howdeshell / Cipollone / Quinlivan
MacKinnon / X / Piercey
Cosgrove / Dickinson
Welsh / Krygier
Garat / Kulikov
Our affiliates last night
No games scheduled
In the ECHL’s North Division
No games scheduled
Standings
(“Hand” are games in hand from WOR’s point of view)
| TEAM | PTS | PTS % | HAND | vs WOR |
| ADK | 75 | .694 | 0 | 2 |
| NOR | 68 | .618 | 1 | 0 |
| NFL | 59 | .518 | 3 | 3 |
| WOR | 54 | .500 | X | X |
| REA | 51 | .472 | 0 | 5 |
| ME | 50 | .463 | 0 | 3 |
| TR | 48 | .462 | -2 | 5 |
BOX SCORE
Worcester 1 1 0 – 2
Maine 1 0 0 – 1
1st Period-1, Worcester, White 8 (Bakanov, Dickinson), 0:35. 2, Maine, Pederson 3 (Lambert, Ritchie), 10:49. Penalties-Kulakov Wor (hooking), 19:03.
2nd Period-3, Worcester, Pivonka 15 (Newkirk, Muse), 7:28. Penalties-Pivonka Wor (delay of game), 1:51; Kalmikov Mne (slashing), 8:04; Drevitch Mne (holding), 11:31; White Wor (slashing), 16:06.
3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Deveaux Mne (boarding), 12:15; Callin Wor (hooking), 12:55; Kulakov Wor (tripping), 15:17; Cosgrove Wor (delay of game), 19:04; Lambert Mne (holding), 19:54.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 17-8-5-30. Maine 11-9-10-30.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 3; Maine 0 / 6.
Goalies-Worcester, Muse 12-7-1-0 (30 shots-29 saves). Maine, Arvanitis 12-7-2-0 (30 shots-28 saves).
A-5,451
Referees-Michael Zyla (34), Casey Terreri (14).
Linesmen-Shane Kanaly (74), Matthew Heinen (93).
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