The Worcester Railers played a matinee match-up Saturday against the Trois-Rivières Lions at Colisée Vidéotron, looking lost and disinterested over the first 40 minutes, and when they finally woke up a little bit it was too late as they threw away another two points in a 3-1 loss to the Lions.
For the last few weeks every game has essentially been a playoff game for the Railers with four teams battling for the last spot on the North Division playoffs, and needing two points against one of the teams chasing them Worcester head coach Jordan Smotherman inexplicably went with backup goaltender Cole Ceci instead of usual starter John Muse. Yes, it’s a day game following a night game, but with the Railers not playing on Sunday Muse, barring an injury, certainly should have been available to play and would have gotten two days of rest before Wednesday’s school day game.
Although in the long run, it really doesn’t matter as the Railers didn’t play much over the first 40 minutes anyway.
One stat is very telling about the game. In the first two periods, the Railers had 13 total shots on goal. The Lions had 13 of their own in just the second period. It looked for a few moments that the Lions may have accidentally lit a fire under Worcester by throwing high hits on Artyom Kulakov and Jack Quinlivan in the middle of the second frame, but after a handful of shifts, the Railers went back to sleep.
Jakov Novak made it 1-0 Lions at 4:55 of the first frame when he grabbed a rebound and with no Worcester skater in the same postal code as him, Novak easily beat Ceci. Justin Ducharme made it 2-0 on a breakaway shorthanded goal after Anthony Callin whiffed on an attempt to keep the puck in the Lions zone. Nicolas Guay added a second frame goal at 3:57 when he beat Ceci on a three-on-one break.
Trevor Cosgrove scored on the power play at 7:44 to make it 3-1.
Worcester would put up 18 shots in the final period, but none really tested Trois-Rivières goaltender Strauss Mann, including the three “non-quality” shots Worcester had over the final 3:10 of the contest with Ceci pulled for an extra attacker.
Right now, the only thing the Railers are testing is fans’ nerves.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were John Copeland (IR/unknown), Todd Goehring, Tristan Lennox (IR/lower body), Riley Piercey, Anthony Repaci (IR/upper body), and Ryan Verrier (IR/upper body). John Muse was the backup goaltender.
In the festivities that ended Friday night’s 4-3 Railers win goaltender John Muse got involved in the fracas as there were six Lions skaters and only five for Worcester. Broadcaster Tim Foley twice mentioned Muse throwing Nolan Yaremko’s glove, the first time saying it had hit the glass, but the second time saying Muse “may have actually thrown Yaremko’s glove up and out of play.” Rule 53.4 says, in part “A misconduct penalty, shall be imposed on a player who unintentionally/accidentally throws his stick or any part thereof or any other object or piece of equipment outside the playing area. If the offense is committed intentionally, a minor for delay of game plus a game misconduct penalty shall be assessed to the offending player or goalkeeper.” While not listed specifically in the rule book, players getting a game misconduct for that kind of behavior are routinely suspended, usually for multiple games. We’ll ignore the fact that Foley probably shouldn’t be mentioning things on air that could potentially be used against players in any disciplinary process, but luckily there was no video of the incident or there was video and Muse didn’t throw the glove out of play.
Friday night’s Idaho/Newfoundland tilt was suspended due to a blizzard, and it also caused Tyler Hascall, the scheduled referee, to not be able to make it to St John’s in time for Saturday night’s matchup. The ECHL was forced to go with an all-Newfoundland crew, with linesmen Sheldon Keough and Brian Lambert filling in as referees, and Jim Vail and Mark Day working the lines. Both Keough and Lambert are referees in other levels of hockey so it’s not like they went into the game completely cold. Oddly, it’s the second time this season a linesman worked a Growlers game as a referee. Linesman Craig Peterson filled in for an ill Dominic Cadieux on November 25th when Newfoundland visited Utah.
In a bit of Holy Cross hockey news, the Crusaders advanced to the Atlantic Hockey semifinal round after sweeping Canisius following a 2-1 double overtime win on Saturday night at the Hart Center. Sophomore Jack Seymour had the game-winner, while senior Jason Grande recorded 38 saves.
Holy Cross will host #5 AIC for the semifinal round, which will be held on March 15-17 at the Hart Center. Castan Sommer, son of former WorSharks head coach Roy Sommer, is an assistant coach of the team.
The three stars of the game were:
1. TR – 71 Justin Ducharme
2. TR – 91 Nicolas Guay
3. TR – 38 Strauss Mann
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Jake Goldowski.
Even Strength Lines
Calder / Pivonka / Callin
Bakanov / Robbins / White
Howdeshell / Cipollone / Quinlivan
MacKinnon / X / Goldowski
Cosgrove / Dickinson
Welsh / Krygier
Garat / Kulikov
Our affiliates last night
Bridgeport 3, Hartford 2 SO
In the ECHL’s North Division
Adirondack 4, Maine 3 OT
Norfolk 4, Reading 1
Newfoundland 6, Idaho 2
Standings
(“Hand” are games in hand from WOR’s point of view)
| TEAM | PTS | PTS % | HAND | vs WOR |
| ADK | 78 | .684 | 1 | 2 |
| NOR | 73 | .629 | 2 | 0 |
| NFL | 61 | .526 | 2 | 3 |
| WOR | 56 | .500 | X | X |
| ME | 53 | .473 | 0 | 3 |
| REA | 53 | .465 | 1 | 5 |
| TR | 52 | .473 | -1 | 3 |
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 1 0 – 1
Trois-Rivières 2 1 0 – 3
1st Period-1, Trois-Rivières, Novak 21 (Kohn, Yaremko), 4:55. 2, Trois-Rivières, Ducharme 14 (Thomas), 7:46 (SH). Penalties-Ortiz Tr (holding), 6:09; Cipollone Wor (tripping), 11:57; Garat Wor (holding), 15:10.
2nd Period-3, Trois-Rivières, Guay 6 (Hylland, Parker-Jones), 3:57. 4, Worcester, Cosgrove 7 (Howdeshell, Quinlivan), 7:44 (PP). Penalties-Lariviere Tr (tripping), 6:21; Goldowski Wor (roughing), 9:17; Paquette Tr (interference), 9:17; Parker-Jones Tr (roughing), 9:17.
3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Martin Tr (roughing), 13:29.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 6-7-18-31. Trois-Rivières 7-13-2-22.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 4; Trois-Rivières 0 / 2.
Goalies-Worcester, Ceci 1-4-0-0 (22 shots-19 saves). Trois-Rivières, Mann 2-0-0-1 (31 shots-30 saves).
A-2,224
Referees-Yannick Jobin-Manseau (30).
Linesmen-Maxime Carre (77), Maxime Bedard (65).
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