The Worcester Railers opened their 2024-2025 ECHL regular season slate Saturday night at the DCU Center against the Reading Royals, and did not manage to generate many quality offensive chances in a 2-1 loss to their East Division rivals. The two teams meet in a rematch Sunday afternoon with a 3pm scheduled puck drop.
The opening puck drop was a tribute to Matty Gaudreau, who played for both Worcester and Reading in his ECHL career, as each club lined up with just four skaters on the ice. Referee Will Kelly dropped the puck and Railers center Matthew Kopperud pushed it over to the empty left-wing spot, and with both benches and fans standing and cheering, 21 seconds ran off the clock.
Once the game started in earnest it looked like no one was all that comfortable on the ice, with neither really able to press the issue. Just as it looked like we’d be heading to intermission scoreless just moments after the Railers killed a penalty they grabbed a 1-0 lead on a great pass by Matt DeMelis and a nice finish by Connor Welsh.
Much to the chagrin of the 5,929 in attendance, that would be the only puck to make it past Keith Petruzzelli.
Reading tied the score on an NHL-quality shot from Royals defenseman Logan Britt, who had about a postage-stamp-sized hole to shoot through and managed to find the back of the net high to the stick side of Worcester netminder Michael Bullion at 8:23 of the middle period.
In the third frame the Railers were making too many passes and weren’t taking good care of the puck, and at 12:59 one of their far too frequent turnovers ended up in the back of their net when Tyler Gratton was able to corral a loose puck and beat Bullion.
Oftentimes great plays in losses just become footnotes, and Welsh had one of those late in the contest when Reading forward Shane Sellar backhanded the puck toward the empty Worcester net from deep in the Royals zone. It slowly slid toward the yawning goal with Welsh giving chase, with the puck, Welsh’s stick, referee Kelly, and linesman Antoine Bujold-Roux all arriving at the goal line at nearly the exact same time. Referee Kelly signaled it was a good goal, but after a video review changed the call to no goal.
But, alas, the Railers could not take advantage of that second chance.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Cole Crowder, Ryan Dickinson (IR/unknown), Austin Heidemann, Griffin Loughran (IR/unknown), and Cam McDonald. John Muse was the backup goaltender.
This season the ECHL joined the NHL and AHL in allowing teams to dress 18 skaters for a game along with their two goaltenders. When Worcester joined the ECHL for the 2017-18 season the maximum number of skaters was just 16, and for the 2021-22 season that number was raised to 17. The number of players allowed on the roster, 21 active and two reserve, was not increased. As usual, the number of active skaters will drop to 22, 20 and two, in mid-November. ECHL teams can have one player on the newly created 3-day Injured Reserve list, and as before an unlimited number of players on the 14-day injured reserve.
In some behind-the-scenes rule changes in the ECHL, the visiting team must submit their game lineup within five minutes of the completion of warm-ups. The home team must submit their lineup immediately after receiving the visiting team’s lineup. This was added to the rulebook because some teams were waiting until the last moment to hand their game lineups to the official scorer in an attempt to gain an advantage over the other team. In an equipment change, all players and on-ice officials are required to wear cut-proof socks, wrist protection, and neck protection at all times while on the ice. The league must approve every safety item worn.
In a major rule change, referees can now use video review to determine if a puck was deflected into the net with a high stick. Previously that was not one of the incidences that could be reviewed. Some officials were getting around that by checking for goaltender interference, which led to some odd reasons for “no goal” calls where there was virtually no goaltender interference, but it was obvious the puck was deflected by a high stick.
With it being the first time this season that Worcester and Reading have faced off, let’s look at some roster and area connections between the two clubs. For the Royals, defender JoJo Cassaro spent two seasons at UMass-Amherst and won the National Championship with the Minutemen in 2020-21, and goaltender Keith Petruzzelli hails from Wilbraham, MA. For the Railers, Jordan Kaplan had an assist in three games with Reading in 2022-23, and netminder John Muse spent portions of the 2017-18 season in Reading, going 19-5-2 in 26 games with a 2.24 GAA and a .931 save percentage. He got no help from the Royals in his four playoff games against Manchester that season, losing two games in double overtime, a third in overtime, and the Royals were blanked in an elimination game. He had a 2.02 GAA and a .945 save percentage in 327:30 of playing time in those four games.
Usually, you only notice the linesmen if they do something wrong, but eagle-eyed fans Saturday night saw Antoine Bujold-Roux do something correctly that doesn’t often come up in hockey games at any level. Early in the second period Reading goaltender Keith Petruzzelli lost his stick in a goalmouth scrum, and as play continued a Royals defender passed over his own stick to Petruzzelli. The goalie stick lay on the ice just out of Petruzzelli’s reach, where it was then knocked further away as Worcester and Reading battled for the puck. Eventually, it ended up beyond the red line in front of the Royals’ bench. Usually, linesmen will remove discarded sticks, broken or not, when they are able but Bujold-Roux correctly did not touch the loose goalie stick as it was still “live” and could be returned to Petruzzelli as play continued. The stick was finally removed under the direction of the Royals’ bench.
The three stars of the game were:
1. REA – 59 Tyler Gratton
2. WOR – 26 Connor Welsh
3. REA – 80 Keith Petruzzelli
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Matt DeMelis.
Even Strength Lines
Randl / Kopperud / Donhauser
Repaci / Kaplan / Callin
Bakanov / Jacobs / Gill
Piercey / DeMelis / Dudek
Luce / Welsh
Verrier / Klee
Rajaniemi / Krygier
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 4, Montreal 3 (SO)
Hartford 5, Bridgeport 4 (OT)
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Maine 4, Wheeling 1
Adirondack 6, Norfolk 3
BOX SCORE
Reading 0 1 1 – 2
Worcester 1 0 0 – 1
1st Period-1, Worcester, Welsh 1 (DeMelis, Kaplan), 19:08. Penalties-Dudek Wor (interference), 16:59.
2nd Period-2, Reading, Britt 1 (Cassaro, Sellar), 8:23. Penalties-Marcinkevics Rea (high-sticking), 10:24; Miller Rea (interference), 12:59; Sellar Rea (tripping), 17:25; Randl Wor (high-sticking), 19:22.
3rd Period-3, Reading, Gratton 2 (Britt), 12:59. Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Reading 7-5-4-16. Worcester 6-15-5-26.
Power Play Opportunities-Reading 0 / 2; Worcester 0 / 3.
Goalies-Reading, Petruzzelli 1-0-0-0 (26 shots-25 saves). Worcester, Bullion 0-1-0-0 (16 shots-14 saves).
A-5,927
Referees-Chazz Knoche (33), Will Kelly (7).
Linesmen-Davids Rozitis (90), Antoine Bujold-Roux (72).
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