The Worcester Railers hosted the Reading Royals Wednesday morning in a school day game at the DCU Center, and it seems the lesson of the day was you can’t win if you don’t score. While Worcester put the puck in the Royals’ net twice only one of them counted, and both times Reading beat John Muse it ended up on the scoreboard, and that was it in a 2-1 loss.
This writer watched the game video to see the goaltender interference call that went against the Railers and took a power play goal off the board, and referee Austin O’Rourke had it correct, Riley Piercey interfered with Nolan Maier.
If anyone cares, Reading has a highlights package up you can look at. Honestly, don’t bother. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Joey Cipollone, 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 the NY Islanders re-assigned Reece Newkirk from Bridgeport to Worcester.
On Tuesday Railers General Manager Jordan Smotherman traded future considerations to the Savannah Ghost Pirates in exchange for veteran forward Ryan Scarfo. On paper, this trade makes absolutely no sense. Scarfo is just 4-8-12 in 56 games this season, with a woeful rating of minus-28, and as a veteran is much more expensive than a player who could have been signed out of college. Add to that he was likely to be released by Savannah he could have been gotten for just a waiver claim. The same day of the trade Greenville placed forward Jordan Timmons on waivers, who was 3-1-4 in 16 games with the Swamp Rabbits, and he was claimed by Jacksonville, a team higher in the standings than the Railers. Not that Worcester really needed Timmons either, but of the two, it makes more sense to take on the bigger, younger player.
The three stars of the game were:
1. REA – 73 Nolan Maier
2. REA – 91 Yvan Mongo
3. WOR – 37 Reece Newkirk
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Eabha.
Even Strength Lines
Newkirk / Callin / Quinlivan
Bakanov / Robbins / White
Piercey / Pivonka / Calder
MacKinnon / X / Howdeshell
Cosgrove / Dickinson
Welsh / Krygier
Garat / Kulakov
Our affiliates last night
No games scheduled
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
No games scheduled
Standings
(“Hand” are games in hand from WOR’s point of view)
Will be updated again after Friday’s game.
BOX SCORE
Reading 1 1 0 – 2
Worcester 0 0 1 – 1
1st Period-1, Reading, Nardi 14 (Mongo, Evennou), 5:52. Penalties-Bertuzzi Rea (hooking), 11:40.
2nd Period-2, Reading, Mongo 13 (Nardi), 17:13. Penalties-Mingo Rea (holding the stick), 4:52.
3rd Period-3, Worcester, Newkirk 4 (Kulakov, Krygier), 8:04. Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Reading 9-8-8-25. Worcester 8-14-15-37.
Power Play Opportunities-Reading 0 / 0; Worcester 0 / 2.
Goalies-Reading, Maier 13-14-3-2 (37 shots-36 saves). Worcester, Muse 13-8-1-0 (25 shots-23 saves).
A-3,236
Referees-Sam Heidemann (22), Austin O’Rourke (10).
Linesmen-Sam Schildkraut (46), Conor Foley (86).
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